Message Mar 30 Nov 2010 09:08

NFCA to invest $600m in geology

By Business Reporter

NON-FERROUS Mining Company Africa (NFCA) will invest an additional US$600 million in the South-East Ore Body Project at Chambishi Copper Mine, chief executive officer Wang Chunlai has said.

And NFCA Chambishi Mine will now be remitting $10 million to the Government in mineral royalty and corporate tax annually after commissioning the west ore body mining site.

The site has increased the mine production capacity to one million tonnes per year with copper accounting for 18,000 tonnes of the output.

Mr Wang said once completed the south-east ore body exploration project was expected to increase the NFCA ore processing capacity to four million tonnes per year and create 5,000 jobs.

NFCA at the weekend commissioned a $160 million West Ore Body which has been developed over the last three years at Chambishi mine which was under care and maintenance over a period of 13 years before the giant Chinese mining conglomerate acquired it.

NFCA would speed up the localisation process that would see the promotion of more Zambians to senior positions and encouraging employees to go for studies.

Mr Wang said NFCA was fully complying with the rules and regulations of mine safety and the protection of the environment and employees’ lives.

“For a stable and safe production in Chambishi mine, we have set up the target of zero tolerance to any accident and provided all kinds of

safety training courses to our employees,” he said.

The firm was committed to contributing to Zambia’s development through the paying of taxes and supporting various organisations promoting social progress.

And China Nonferrous Metal Mining Company (CNMC) group president Luo Tao has said his company would invest additional cash in the south-east ore body mining project at Chambishi Copper mine bringing the total copper production by the mine to 100,000 tonnes per month.

Mr Luo said CNMC would in future create 10,000 jobs resulting into a glorious chapter written for the magnificent development of Chambishi Copper Mine.

Todate, CNMC has invested $1.4 billion in Zambia on an accumulated basis while an additional $1 billion would be invested in the next three years for the construction of the Chambishi Multi Facility Economic Zone and the Lusaka sub-zone, Muliashi leaching project, expansion of the Chambishi Copper Smelter, and South-East Ore Body development.

“By the end of 2013, CNMC’s total investment in Zambia will surpass $2.5billion with more than 20,000 job opportunities provided,” he said.

CNMC has engaged its strategic partner, the Central South University of China to Zambia which had a good reputation in international nonferrous metal research field.

The university would bring advanced copper smelting technologies to Zambia and apply the technologies to the sino-metals leach plant.