The Kinsenda deposit is more typical of the Zambian Copperbelt deposits and is geologically similar to the Mufulira, Chambishi and Chibuluma South mines in Zambia. The Kinsenda deposit marks the transition between the two sub-types of the Copperbelt, with deposits to the north of the Luina dome showing a strong dolomitic character with associated HG oxides close to surface.

The Kinsenda ore body is hosted in a thick sequence of coarse to fine-grained sandstones, siltstones and shales of the Lower Roan Group in the footwall of the Ore Shale Member, and is generically referred to as a “footwall orebody”.

Sub parallel horst (highs) and graben (depressions) features in the pre-deposition basement are suggested by rapid variations in the thickness of the basal units of the Lower Roan both along strike and down dip. There is a strong correlation between the position of the Kinsenda deposit and the basement granite paleotopography, very similar to that of the Chibuluma South deposit. The host rocks occur as valley fill sediments in the down-faulted graben structures adjacent to growth faults that were active during sedimentation. The basement growth faults are oriented in a roughly ENE alignment and have a well-defined magnetic signature that can be traced into the basement rocks of the Luina Dome to the north of the Kinsenda deposit.

Kinsenda is a copper-only sulphide orebody consisting of predominantly chalcocite, bornite and chalcopyrite mineralisation hosted in detrital conglomerates, sandstones and argillaceous siltstones of the Lower Roan Group. The orebody consists of a number of vertically stacked, tabular mineralised zones varying in width from 1 m to 20 m, and generally occurring in the more porous, conglomerate rich zones directly below thick, less permeable siltstone rich zones.

The combined orebody occurs over a strike of approximately 2 000 m, dipping moderately at 25° to 30°. In plan view, the mineralised lenses form a series of partially overlapping, wedge shaped tabular bodies with a northwest-southeast strike orientation, which form laterally continuous lenses referred to as the upper upper ore zone (“UUOZ”), upper ore zone (“UOZ”), middle ore zone (MOZ”), lower ore zone (“LOZ”) and the basal lower lower ore zone (“LLOZ”).

The UUOZ and UOZ occur above the 285mL (285 m below surface) and have been largely mined out. The UOZ is separated from the MOZ by a low grade (less than 2% Cu) zone of approximately 40 m thickness. The waste separation between the other lenses is generally in the order of only a few metres. The LOZ is laterally discontinuous and is divided into multiple zones which can split and coalesce over relatively short distances, with two main components termed LOZA and LOZB.

The MOZ is the most extensively developed and has a maximum strike length of approximately 2 000 m, while the UUOZ has the shortest strike length of 250 m. On dip, the maximum length of the ore bodies can be up to 800 m, with ore thickness ranging from 1 m in peripheral areas to 22 m in the central portions. At least 60% of the mineralisation occurs in zones between 4 m and 12 m wide with an average width of all lenses of 5.9 m. The LOZA and LOZB zones have the highest grade and also constitute 64% of total mineral resource tonnage.

The mineralisation occurs predominantly as interstitial sulphides filling pore spaces in the coarse sediments. Copper oxides represent a maximum of 20% of the mineralisation with the proportion of oxides decreasing with depth. Cobalt minerals are rare and largely restricted to cobaltiferous pyrite.

The mining method proposed in the DRA Report is called both mechanised cut and fill and longitudinal drift-andfill (in the narrow orebody areas). It is essentially very similar to what is referred to as transverse drift-and-fill in the Snowden Report. There are only minor differences in the respective layouts proposed by Snowden and by DRA and SRK considers the method to be an appropriate one given the orebody geometry and geotechnical characteristics.

For the wider areas, DRA states that transverse post-pillar drift-and-fill will be used.

The mining method recovers the ore in horizontal slices, starting from the bottom slice advancing upwards. Pillars are left inside the stope to support the roof. The mined out stope is then back filled with waste rock, hydraulic tailings and the next slice mined working from the fill surface. DRA states that conventional mining will be practised in areas not suitable for trackless mining.

Main levels will be spaced at 25 m intervals and connected to the main access via a ramp system that will be linked to current underground infrastructure.

Access to the orebody will be achieved via a ramp access tunnel leading from the ramp, to the footwall drive that is developed on strike and on the same elevation as the third cut of the stope.

A strike access is developed in the footwall on each main level parallel to the orebody on the same elevation as the third mining cut, in order to gain access to the first cut of the stoping panel. From the footwall, a stope access tunnel is developed in the direction of the orebody at an angle of not more than -9°, an angle which allows all mechanical equipment to operate in that drive.

It is proposed that the mine be divided into sets of three levels, called echelons, which are separated by 10 m thick sill pillars.

Each stoping panel is 90 m long and consists of 6 panels.

The Kinsenda concentrator is designed to recover copper from a Cu sulphide/oxide ore body at a treatment rate of 50 ktpm at an average feed grade of 4.5% Cu over the LoM. The proposed Kinsenda concentrator design is based on well understood and proven technology. The process plant design criteria are based on the results of the suite of metallurgical tests carried out at Mintek. MDM did the plant design and it was completed in March 2011. Subsequently DRA was requested to finalize and optimize the design.

The process plant comprises three-stage crushing (primary jaw crusher, semi autogenous (“SAG”) mill and pebble cone crusher), flash flotation, thickener, filter press and tailings backfill cyclone and plant.

The RoM stockpile will have a capacity of 100 kt. This will be utilized at the beginning of the operation before the concentrator is commissioned. The intention is to keep the ore in this stockpile at a minimum once the whole operation is commissioned in order to reduce the process pipeline time.

The mill feed will be sourced from a 24-hour live stockpile with 4 apron feeders in an attempt to keep the feed as homogeneous as possible. As the stockpile runs down, a front-end loader will be used to push in the side walls. A mill feed silo was not considered due to cost implications.

The SAG mill is a second hand mill sourced from one of the gold mines in South Africa. The mill shell will be shortened to suit the requirement of 50 ktpm.

A pebble cone crusher was included due to the rock hardness of 17 kWh/t. This feature might not operate as envisaged because cast iron steel balls must be used to enable magnetic separation of the mill steel balls. Chrome steel balls proved to be more cost effective but the balls are then not magnetic. The scats and pebbles proved in other operations to be of a lower grade and can be discarded or mixed in with the feed as a circulating load.

The flotation cells selected are self-aspirating cells and as such a compressor for creating air froth is not required. This is the principle used by Wemco Flotation Cells. SRK understands that new flotation cells have been designed for Kinsenda to optimise recovery of both sulphide and oxide copper minerals.

The flotation cell design allows for the last 4 cells in the sulphide float to be used as oxide float cells and the first two in the oxide float as sulphide float cells should the ore ratio change beyond what is envisaged.

There will be two concentrate storage tanks and filter presses. With the tonnage envisaged this should be sufficient.

The tailings thickener was deleted and as such a cyclone overflow product will be pumped to the tailings dam. With the back-fill plant off line the whole tailings stream will go to the dam. The intention is to use the water as pumped by the mine as process water. There will be large volumes coming up from underground in order to maintain the water level underground.