Lustros has secured the final funding needed to complete its copper sulphate processing plant in Puerto Oscuro, Chile. This funding will complete the crushing plant, leaching pads and the remaining work needed on the SX-CR (solvent extraction and crystallisation) plant. The work is expected to take approximately 50 days to complete with revenues from the sale of copper sulphate produced at the plant expected by end March 2013.

Copper sulphate is a value-added product derived from copper ore, and according to Lustros, demand is increasing rapidly for use in farming and agriculture. More than 50% of current global production is made from copper scrap that contains toxins (such as dioxins), which are no longer recognised as food-grade by Canada, Australia and Brazil, with other important consumer countries expected to soon follow suit. Lustros produces copper sulphate directly from copper ore, which it believes makes it an ideal food-grade copper sulphate for use in agriculture. The completed copper sulphate processing plant is engineered to process 180,000 t of raw material and yield over 8,000 t of food-grade copper sulphate per year.

Chairman Zirk Engelbrecht said: “We are extremely pleased to have secured the funds needed to complete our first copper sulphate production facility. This has been a long process, but we have created a unique, state-of-the-art facility supplied with raw materials from our own mine. It has taken 24 months to complete, but we have built a plant three times larger than our initial plans and have in the interim secured our first tailings project. With the expected cash flow produced by this first plant upon completion, we will be able to finance the construction of a second processing plant capable of processing 25,000 t per month which will bring our total capacity to 40,000 t per month.”