Daily News  :: Southern Africa

Lusaka - TEAL mining, the 65 percent-owned ARM (ARI) subsidiary, said it would probably look to raise the funds to build its large copper project at Konkola North in Zambia next year.

"We would like to do an equity raising sometime during next year," chief executive, Rick Menell, said. "The amounts are not certain but they are going to be more than we raised in the first place."

ARM listed TEAL on the Toronto Stock Exchange last year in November, where the company raised $33.3mn for exploration and studies to prove up its potential mining projects.

By the first half of next year, the company will have made major strides in proving up its various projects, largely in copper, but also on a gold prospect in Namibia.

"By then [H1 07], we will have drilled out the gold resource. We will have a full feasibility study that could allow go ahead on Konkola phase one, [and also] we should be getting close to commissioning a smelter at Labumbashi and by that stage we should be built on Mwambashi. So within six months we should be building up a head of steam as a producer."

TEAL, which has a secondary listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), has seen nearly no trade in its shares in South Africa due to a complicated process of getting shares across from the Canadian market.

Menell hoped to sell some shares to local investors as part of next year's equity issue to improve volumes in South Africa.

"We'd like to place some here if we can, that is why we listed here," he said.

The flagship project in the portfolio is TEAL's Konkola North project in Zambia.

Recent access to the old Anglo American shaft showed that it was still in good condition and following some refurbishment will be used in TEAL's phase one plans.

"When we have advanced all of those projects we think then we can raise money, because we can say look here is the Konkola feasibility study. It makes sense it gives these returns and this is what it needs in finance."

Phase one involves the exploitation of a resource containing about 1.5 million tonnes of copper that will produce about 30 000-40 000tpa according to Menell.

Early cash flows will be derived from the company's DRC furnace, the Kalumines project in that country and the Mwambashi project in Zambia. I-Net Bridge