KOBOLD Metals has broken ground on what will be Zambia’s largest copper mine, a $2.3bn project that ranks among the biggest investment programmes in the southern African country’s history, said Bloomberg News.
The Mingomba mine, located near Zambia’s border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, will eventually produce more than 300,000 tons of copper a year, placing it among the continent’s top sources of the metal.
Silicon Valley-based KoBold, which is backed by billionaires including Bill Gates and Sam Altman, used proprietary artificial intelligence technology to identify a highly concentrated copper resource deep underground after acquiring the project in December 2022. The company has moved to begin construction before engineering studies are complete.
“We cannot afford to go slow,” said Mfikeyi Makayi, CEo of KoBold’s Africa unit, noting that similar projects typically take more than 15 years to reach production.
However, KoBold faces significant technical challenges, said Bloomberg News.
Mingomba will be among the deepest high-grade copper mines in the world, at roughly 1,700 metres below surface, in a region already known for exceptionally wet underground conditions requiring large-scale pumping operations. A final cost estimate will follow completion of an engineering study early next year, said president Josh Goldman. The company is still weighing options for smelting and refining.
KoBold has yet to bring a mine into production anywhere. The Mingomba project nonetheless bolsters Zambian president Hakainde Hichilema’s drive to more than triple the country’s copper output by early in the next decade, alongside major expansions under way at Barrick Mining and First Quantum Minerals.
