Message Ven 1 Fév 2013 21:42

First Quantum stockpiles Zambian copper concentrates due to

February 01, 2013 - 11:50 GMT Location: Windhoek

KEYWORDS: First Quantum , Zambia , Matt Pascal , duty , copper , smelter , Kansanshi , Sentinel

Limited copper smelter capacity in Zambia has forced one of the country’s biggest miners, First Quantum Minerals, to stockpile metal in concentrate form, the company’s director of operations Matt Pascall told Zambian media.
Pascall said that Canada-listed First Quantum has stockpiled 60,000 tonnes of copper concentrate, valued at around $100 million.

A10% levy charged by the Zambian government on exports of concentrates deters the company from exporting the material.

Pascall said First Quantum had applied for a government waiver to export the stockpiled concentrates. Unless the waiver is granted, the company is likely to stockpile even more, due to congestion at the few smelters in the country.

Pascall said that the company wants to ship the material to be processed into copper cathodes outside the country, but the 10% export duty is prohibitive.

“We are sitting on as much as 60,000 tonnes of copper concentrate here in Solweziand. It is worth $100 million. The smelters on the Copperbelt are chock-a-block and they can’t take another tonne of copper. We cannot export this concentrate because it will attract a 10% duty and that makes it more expensive,” Pascall said.

Metal Bulletin has previously reported that rising copper production in the African Copperbelt, which straddles the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Zambia, has far outstripped smelter capacity, estimated at around 1 million tpy.

“As it is now, we shall keep this concentrate until our time comes in the queues at the smelters. Meanwhile, the mines will continue to produce more, which we shall keep piling up,” Pascall said.

First Quantum is building a $640 million, 300,000 tpy copper smelter in the country, which will handle feed from its existing Kansanshi copper and gold mine and its Sentinel project, which is expected to come on stream in 2014.

Sentinel is expected to start by producing 130,000 tpy of copper in its first year, ramping up to 300,000 tpy by 2015.

Felix Njini
editorial@metalbulletin.com