Junction Mining Limited owns the Kitumba copper project. Junction Mining was 50% owned by Momentum Ventures Limited and 50% by Chifupu Resources Limited.
In March 2024, Sinomine Resource Group acquired Momentum's 50% equity interest in Junction Mining and Chifupu's 15% equity interest in Junction Mining.
Sinomine Resources now owns a total of 65% of Junction Mining and 65% of the Kitumba copper mine project.
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Summary:
The Mumbwa licence area lies within the extreme southern portion of the Neoproterozoic Lufilian Arc. The Lufilian Arc is a large arcuate fold and thrust belt covering northwestern Zambia, the southern Democratic Republic of Congo and eastern Angola.
The geology of the Mumbwa area is described by Cikin and Drysdall (1971). The region is dominated by metasedimentary rocks of the upper units of the Neoproterozoic Katanga Sequence. These rocks are intruded by the large syn- to post-tectonic 566-533 Ma Hook Granitoid Suite and by younger post-tectonic syenites, diorites, porphyry granites, granites, diorites and gabbros. The east-northeast trending MSZ runs along the southern margin of the Hook Granitoid Suite.
The Mumbwa district represents an IOCG province that is related to voluminous an orogenic (Atype), alkali and granitoid magmatism and tectonic activity that took place from 570-500 Ma along a Pan-African transform plate boundary that separated the Congo and Kalahari Cratons (Pelly, 2001). IOCG systems associated with the Hook Granitoid Suite and related intrusions in the Mumbwa district display many of the typical characteristics of IOCG systems.
IOCG deposits comprise a broad and ill-defined clan of mineralisation styles, which are grouped together chiefly because they contain hydrothermal magnetite and/or specular hematite as major accompaniments to chalcopyrite ± bornite. Apart from copper and byproduct gold appreciable amounts of Co, U, REE, Mo, Zn, Ag, Nb and P may also be present.
The Kitumba copper deposit is hosted in a haematitic breccia system which occurs along the Kitumba Fault Zone (KFZ) that outcrops as a prominent north-south trending ridge forming part of the Kitumba Hills. Copper grades have been leached from the top 200 metres of the zone.
Deposits vary between magnetite-apatite deposits with actinolite or pyroxene (Kiruna type) and hematite magnetite deposits with varying amounts of copper sulphides, Au, Ag, uranium minerals and REE (Olympic Dam type). Typically, these systems are characterized by >20% iron oxides. Iron-rich zones, breccias and alteration halos associated with IOCG systems can reach hundreds of metres in width and many kilometres in length.
Deposits are localized along high- to low-angle faults which are generally splays off major, crustal-scale faults. Structural control can vary from the intersection of highly permeable units with fault zones, dilational jogs, duplexes, splays on faults and shears, folding or complex intercalation of high and low permeability units all influencing fluid flow regimes and ultimately the position of alteration zones, breccias and/or ore deposition.