KCM TO RECOMMENCE MINING OPERATIONS AT CHINGOLA OPEN PIT

Konkola Copper Mines -KCM- has announced the resumption of mining operations at its Open-Pit in Chingola on the Copperbelt.

According KCM Provisional Liquidator CELINE NAIR, this is part of broader plans to improve operations at the mining company, before government finds a new investor.

Ms. NAIR has since diclosed a plan, through which KCM also seeks to spend 17-million dollars to carry out an annual maintenance shutdown of the Nchanga Smelter.

She says there are also other measures to expand production in the Konkola East operation, in order to boost overall KCM total copper production.

This is according to a statement availed to ZNBC news in Lusaka, by KCM General Manager for Corporate Affairs, SHAPI SHACINDA.Ms.

NAIR explained that KCM is working closely with government to ensure sustainability of operations, ahead of mining of ore for the first time since 2018.

She said the initial copper ore production at the Open-Pit Mine in Chingola is planned at 70-thousand metric tonnes per month, by end of this month, before ramping up to 1-hundred and 20-thousand tonnes by August.

The Provisional Liquidator added that KCM is also seeking ways to lift production at the Tailings Leach Plant at Nchanga in Chingola, to up 3-thousand 5-hundred tonnes, through upgrades.

KCM has invited a selection of local and international firms to respond to a request for proposal for the selection of an investment banker to source a strategic equity investor.

The initiative is also meant to guarantee the development of the 1 point 1 billion dollars Konkola Deep Mining Project.