Zambia's Baluba mine to resume output December 15
Fri Nov 13, 2009 1:14pm GMT
LUSAKA (Reuters) - Zambia's Baluba copper mine will resume output two weeks ahead of schedule on December 15 after modernising the copper processing plant, the mine's owners said on Friday.
Sydney Chileya, spokesman for the China Non-Ferrous Mining Corporation (CNMC), said the company spent about $70 million on the work.
It expected to complete the overhaul of the processing plant by December 10 to facilitate production, he said.
"We have completed almost all of the works at the mine but production cannot start until the concentrator is rehabilitated because that is the processing component of the plant," Chileya told Reuters.
Baluba, which was Zambia's third-largest copper producer until early this decade, is a unit of Luanshya Copper Mines (LCM), in which CNMC has a majority stake after buying the company for $50 million in May this year.
The mine started blasting for copper in August, having exhausted all the developed underground reserves when the mine was closed and placed on care and maintenance last December.
"As of yesterday, we had gone 2,652.8 metres deep and our target was 2,340.5 metres. We have done 1,733 blasts to achieve this although the target we initially set was 1,637 blasts, we are ahead of schedule," Chileya said.
Chileya said production was estimated to start at 5,000 tonnes of copper ore per day.Chileya said the company, which plans to raise finished copper production to 30,000 tonnes per year from the 21,000 tonnes before the mine's shutdown, had employed 2,000 miners, up from 1,749 previously.
CNMC says it plans to spend a total of $400 million on Baluba and the Mulyashi project.
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( Pierre Mac Orlan )
( Pierre Mac Orlan )