Following the sale of Chibuluma South Crown Pillar Mine, Chibuluma Mines could not sustain operations with ore from Chifupu Underground Mine alone. Therefore, the Chibuluma Mines Plc Board, Metorex Executive Committee and Jinchuan Group Limited, jointly resolved to place the operations of Chibuluma Mine Plc under care and maintenance with effect from 1 July 2020. All Chibuluma Mine employees were consequently declared redundant with only a few re-employed on short-term contracts for the care and maintenance period.  

In September 2020, in order to assess the viability of re-opening Chifupu Mine, Chibuluma Mines engaged Integrated Geological Solutions of South Africa (IGS) to conduct an evaluation of the Chifupu Mine resources and reserves.  

This indicated that the current resources amount to 3,118,000 tonnes of Copper Ore, with an average Grade of 2%, containing 65,478 tonnes of Copper metal. And recoverable reserves of 1.346 million tonnes of Copper Ore, with an average grade of 1.83%, containing 24,592 tonnes of Copper metal. Subsequently, Chibuluma Mines in conjunction with Metorex (Pty) Limited engaged the services of Ernest and Young (EY) to conduct a valuation of Chibuluma Mines Plc including the reserves at Chifupu Mine and the assets at the processing plant.  

The EY valuation report indicated that based on current mining costs and current (forecast) Copper prices, re-opening Chifupu Mine operations would result in an overall loss of USD 28 million over the 5-year period to 2025.  

No dividends were paid for the financial year ended 31st December 2020 (December 2019: nil).