Berkeley Minerals appoints Ascot to assist in progressing Kabwe

AIM-listed metals processing company Berkeley Mineral Resources (BMR) has chosen Ascot Group further to the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed on June 15th with Chinese metal refiner Yunnan Xiangyun Feilong Nonferrous Metal Company.

Under the terms of the agreement Ascot will oversee and manage the design finalisation, installation and commissioning of its lead and zinc beneficiation plant in Kabwe, Zambia, as set out in the above MoU.

Masoud Alikhani, Chairman of Berkeley Mineral Resources, commented: "The team at Ascot Group have been intimately involved in our partnership with Feilong since its inception. BMR is pleased to welcome them to the project as substantive technical contributors and sees this as a next step towards the completion of our processing objectives".

Feilong is a significant refiner of zinc, lead and associated metals in the Peoples' Republic of China.

Since the signing of the MoU, Feilong had been testing and verifying samples of tailings from BMR's stockpiles at Kabwe, Zambia.

It has concluded that processing of the tailings at Kabwe can achieve suitable recovery rates to produce concentrates of more than 40%, and up to 48%, which will then be processable into saleable metal.

Berkeley's share price rose 5.56% to 2.37p at 08:56 on Tuesday morning.

MF