[miningmx.com] — BRAZILIAN firm Vale plans to invest $400 million in Zambia’s Konkola North copper project, expected to start producing copper by 2013, Executive Director Eduardo Ledsham said on Thursday.
Ledsham said while visiting Zambia, Africa’s largest copper producer, that the Konkola North project, Vale’s joint-venture project with African Rainbow Minerals (ARM) was the first of other projects Vale planned to develop in Africa.
“Our goal is to start implementation of the project in September this year and begin production by 2013. The capital required is around $400 million which we will invest in two and half years,” Ledsham said during a business meeting in Lusaka.
“We (will be) starting with 50,000 tonnes of copper per year before going to 100,000 tonnes in the second phase when we expand the mine by 2015,” Ledsham said.
A spokesperson for ARM said the decision to go ahead with Konkola was still subject to approval at an ARM board meeting scheduled to take place early in August. She said the $400m would be split equally between ARM and Vale with ARM’s contribution expected to be between $175m and $200m depending on the final cost.
Ledsham said the Konkola North underground mine would employ about 1,500 people once its development started.
He said Vale was also involved in exploration works and planned to invest in Nickel mining in Zambia after completing the copper mine.
Diversified South African miner African Rainbow said in May that it planned to divest from a gold project in Namibia by June and finalise the development of the Konkola copper project with Vale.
Copper mining is Zambia’s economic mainstay and the mines are a major employer in this southern African country of 12 million people.
According to the ARM 2009 operational review a feasibility study for the Konkola North East/South Limb ore bodies has been completed. The study envisaged a mine production rate of 2.5mt/year which equates to about 45,000t/year of copper.
