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CNMC eyes Luanshya open pit mine site
By Business Reporter
CHINA Non-ferrous Mining Corporation (CNMC), the owners of Luanshya Copper Mine, will in January next year begin exploration works on one of the three sites in Luanshya, a move that could give the town a second open-pit mine.
CNMC Luanshya Copper Mine (CLM) chief executive officer Luo Xingpeng
said in Luanshya that Lufubu had the potential to become a large open pit mine going by its size an d his company would start studying the
area for its mineralisation potential.
Mr Luo said apart from Lufubu area, Luanshya had two other oxide caps which could make up open pit mines.
He said however that his company would start with Lufubu in early 2011.
The other two oxide caps (area with copper just below the surface) are Mushiba and Baluba East and once turned into mines, the three could make Luanshya one of the busiest mining towns in the country.
“Lufubu seems to have a lot of copper below the surface and we shall soon start exploration works to see if the area is viable. This move
is one of our three short term missions in Zambia, the first two have
already been carried out inside the projected time,” Mr Luo said.
The more exploration works should come as good news to Luanshya, a town that had come off the worst in the post Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines (ZCCM) privatisation era facing up to three closures.
But CNMC brought relief to Luanshya when it announced it was
going to carry out the mining of Mulyashi Oxide Cap, an area which is now being turned into an open pit mine in which it invested US$350 million.
The Lufubu oxide cap covers a surface area extending 2.5km from east to west and 800m from north to south.
Mr Luo said his firm’s first objective in Zambia after acquiring CLM was to rehabilitate Baluba Mine and create jobs.
Already, 2,500 workers were currently employed at Baluba Mine.
CLM was constructing Mulyashi Open Pit Mine whose works had
exceeded the 20 per cent mark with the first copper cathode expected by November next year.
CNMC had also spent $150 million on Baluba Mine, bringing the
investment in Zambia to $500 million (about K2.5 trillion).