Chambishi Copper to invest USD 250 million in Zambia

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Chambishi Copper to invest USD 250 million in Zambia
Saturday, 19 Feb 2011It is reported that Chinese owned Chambishi Copper Smelter in Zambia aims to invest about USD 250 million in its expansion program to increase designed capacity of 150,000 tonnes of blister double its operations and increase the annual production capacity of blister copper and satisfy demand.

Mr Fan Wei deputy CEO of Chambishi Copper said that the company was seeking to plough in about USD 250 million into the smelter at Chambishi mine in Zambia to increase output to 250,000 per tonne to satisfy the increasing demand and that the future of the smelting industry was bright.

He said that the expansion program is on course and was intended to be completed by next year to increase capacity from 150,000 tonnes to between 250,000 tonnes and 300,000 tonnes of blister copper using an ISA technology from Australia.

Chambishi Copper Smelter customers include among other Lumwana Copper Mines, China Luahsya Mines, NFCA and Chibuluma mine and that the company’s biggest challenge is the lack of a mine of its own in that 96% income is esxpended into mining companies with the remaining four percent is used for investment, salaries and other overheads.

He appealed top the government to allow the company secure a permit to explore and develop an own mine adding that the Chambishi smelter is designed to produce 150,000 tonnes of blister copper and 340,000 tonnes of sulphuric acid.

Recently the company said in an assessment report to the Environmental Council of Zambia that the USD 300 million state of the art Chinese operated smelter had intentions of increasing production of blister copper to 250,000 tonnes per annum from 150,000 tonnes currently produced.

Some of the intended plans of the smelter include the lowering of the cost of production in light of the reduced metal prices on the international metal market and a reduction or maximize on the amount of effluent released to the natural environment outside the smelter.

It further intends to improve on the copper recovery rate to 98 percent and improve on the sulphur dioxide recovery rate emitted to the environment to 9% through various measures. To achieve this the miner plans to expand the concentrates shed, extending of the building for the furnace and the converter and construct an additional acid plant and oxygen units.

According to the report, construction of the concentrator unit comprising of slag cooling system, crusher milling plant and floatation circuits as well as constructing the leach plant and modification of auxiliary facilities. Mr Rupiah Banda president of Zambia commissioned the Chambishi Copper Smelter on October 18th 2009 and hailed China for its unwavering zeal to invest in Zambia in various sectors of the economy.


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