Prospect's Mumbezhi Project puts it at the middle of copper's megatrend. And FQM just bought in

Prospect's Mumbezhi Project puts it at the middle of copper's megatrend. And FQM just bought in

Jonathon Davidson

The Market Online, Australia

With the price of copper already subject to post-COVID tailwinds and widespread conviction we’re at the early days of a copper “megatrend,” it already looked like the electrification metal was a pretty strong bet.

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This content has been prepared as part of a partnership with Prospect Resources and is intended for informational purposes only.

As a commodity, copper has now long been one of the few metals that exited the pandemic years with a valuation firmly higher than what it boasted pre-2020.

Once the supply chain issues borne from global lockdowns were shaken out of the system, fundamentals still informed the copper price – the simple fact that global demand, expected to grow for years to come, is outpacing supply.

As far as U.S. futures go, Trump’s recent move to impose 50% tariffs on copper has also brought the metal back into the spotlight.

Looking at prices on the COMEX, Copper’s YTD performance sees it up +40% – using that benchmark, copper is thus outperforming gold.

So the question for market watchers and traders then becomes: Which companies have the most promising copper projects to take advantage of copper’s potential long-term outperformance?

Welcome to Prospect Resources

Here, then, recent market interest on HotCopper and elsewhere for Prospect Resources’ (ASXSC) Mumbezhi copper project is clear.

With an existing exploration target of up to one billion tonnes of copper-containing ore, Prospect Resources currently stands on the precipice of what could be one of the ASX’s largest copper stories.

Located in Zambia’s Copper Belt, the company stands well-placed. The African nation, eyeing the mineral revenues of neighbouring nations, has recently announced a target to produce three million tonnes per annum of copper in the next seven years.

But it’s the acumen of Prospect’s strategic heavyweight partnership that really puts the project in the spotlight.

First Quantum Minerals sees future with Prospect

Some 20 kilometres away from Mumbezhi lies Toronto-listed First Quantum Minerals’ (FQM) Sentinel copper project, one of the largest copper operations in the region.

FQM, for those playing at home, boasts a market cap of over A$21 billion. The Sentinel project alone produced 231,000 metric tonnes of copper in 2024.

And in April, FQM bought a 15% stake in ASX-listed Prospect Resources through a placement that has now put the copper major at the forefront of Zambia’s overall copper mining industry, and top of Prospect’s shareholder registry.

What has HotCopper and the market broadly particularly interested in the FQM-Prospect partnership is that, for all intents and purposes, it appears FQM has its eyes on Mumbezhi as a way to prolong its own operations in the country.

Right now, FQM’s Sentinel project is expected to start winding down in 2029 as copper grades decline on-site, the Sentinel acreage per existing geotechnical assessments of Sentinel’s overall mineral system.

But, at the same time, FQM has sunk billions of dollars into the Sentinel project, including – and this is the key – upgrades to its copper smelter.

With production at Sentinel to wind down in only four years, for a strong ROI for that smelter upgrade, FQM needs more ore to process.

And that, in turn, is why some analysts and punters alike are bullish on the potential for synergy that could see FQM take Mumbezhi ore into its own smelter.

Which means Prospect could well end up being fast-tracked to copper producer status before 2030. And that’s just after having Large Scale Mining licences approved under Zambia’s regulatory ecosystem only months ago.

So what’s next for Prospect?

Activity on-site Mumbezhi, thanks to the injection of capital from FQM (and the utilisation of its experienced geotech team), Prospect has already wrapped up an early-stage drill run on-site with assays still due back to the company as of mid-July.

Existing drill hits from the Nyungu Central target, part of larger Mumbezhi, reflect one 49m wide intercept grading at 0.5% copper, including a 12m pocket just shy of 0.8% copper grades. Well-known potentially copper-hosting mineral chalcopyrite was hit in diamond drilling at depths extending 300m, something was hinted at in electromag studies from the early 21st century (then conducted by Anglo American).

Metallurgical test work is also ongoing, and initial results are very positive, with high-grade Cu concentrates produced from both the Nyungu Central and Kabikupa deposits to date, with outcomes well aligned with other copper operations in the Zambian Copper Belt.

Towards the collection of more modern data, alongside FQM, Prospect is currently overseeing fresh airborne electromagnetic studies over the Mumbezhi acreage, as well as widespread geochemical soil sampling.

“Geochem sampling is very effective at Mumbezhi, particularly as we have no outcrop,” Prospect Resources Corporate Development Manager David Broomfield told HotCopper.

“Copper is, by its nature is a very mobile element and hence, is generally a very good indicator of nearby copper mineralisation for ‘blind’ copper deposits… [we] purchased a significant amount of data from Orpheus Uranium, the previous owner, in 2024 – and it has proven invaluable.”

What the company hopes to do in H2 CY2025 is, at the least, expand the existing copper Mineral Resources – but also on Prospect’s radar is a Scoping Study for Mumbezhi, all cards in order, set for release during the first quarter of 2026.

If you wanted one to watch: Potential rarely gets more interesting than this.

The material provided in this article is for information only and should not be treated as investment advice. Viewers are encouraged to conduct their own research and consult with a certified financial advisor before making any investment decisions. For full disclaimer information, please clickhere.

Jonathon Davidson

The Market Online, Australia

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