Shalina Resources has built the first and only sulphuric acid plant in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

It commissioned its first acid plant, capacity 100 tpd, in 2005. This plant is located within the Usoke compound in Usoke Avenue, Lubumbashi. The acid produced consumed within production leaching section.

A second acid plant will be commissioned in Oct 2008. This acid plant is located at the Etoile mine and will have a capacity of 500 tpd. A railway link is currently under construction to bring the sulphur to site. This expansion is timed to be commissioned with increasing requirement for acid for leaching at Usoke where Copper Cathode production will increase to 30,000tons/annum. Any excess acid will be sold within the local Katanga market where demand is strong.

Shalina Resources has a modular approach to developing operations which has allowed it to self-fund the majority of its growth.

The Company first started small-scale mining and mineral processing in 2002. It constructed a copper carbonate pilot plant, known as ‘PP1’, within its production facility based at Usoke Ave (in the industrial zone of Lubumbashi). At this time, annual production capacity was 500 tonnes of copper carbonate and 240 tonnes of cobalt carbonate that was recovered by precipitation. By continued re-investment of retained earnings, the Company has considerably increased its production capacity and will surpass 24,000tpa copper cathode by end 2011 and work towards 2,400 tpa in the form of cobalt salt.

In 2004, Shalina Resources built its first sulphuric acid plant with capacity of 100 tpd at Usoke Avenue and a new larger plant with an installed capacity of 500 tpd was commissioned at the Etoile mine site in August 2010. It has been commissioned for the extra leaching capacity required to reach the target of copper cathode production of 100 tpd which is expected to be achieved by 2012.

In 2007, Shalina Resources bought the Mount Gordon Cu SX/EW plant from Australia and re-assembled it at the Usoke site. With this move, the company was able to commission the first phase of its Copper EW facility and start producing pure metal copper cathodes (design capacity of 16,000 tonnes per annum).

In this year, the company also commissioned the Kilimasimba Stone Quarry, its purpose being to produce aggregates for construction. Both the acid and the aggregates operations give Shalina Resources access to strategic key production materials and this has enabled capital and production costs to be reduced. That is not to forget the local value addition and job creation also created by these operations.