Message Jeu 23 Juin 2011 07:49

Equinox Minerals seeks to expand the life of Lumwana open ca

Equinox Minerals seeks to expand the life of Lumwana open cast Copper Mine
Thursday, 23 Jun 2011

Equinox Minerals Limited, pending take over by Canada’s Barrick Gold seeks to expand the life of its Lumwana open cast Copper Mine in Zambia after tapping into additional 1.5 billion tonnes of reserves at its Chimuwingo site.

The Greenfield miner envisions that although present stocks of copper reserves at its old site could last an estimated 5 years the discovery of 1.5 billion tonnes of reserves at Chimuwingo, lying within its operational radius, was a ray of hope for the company to grow and become Zambia’s leading copper producer.

Mr Adam Wright MD of Equinox Minerals said in north western province on Monday that the company’s future was bright as mines in north western Zambia including First Quantum owned, Kansanshi Plc had increased copper production, overtaking the traditional copperbelt region because of vast reserves. Drilling and explorations at Chimuwingo has started.

Mr Wright said that Lumwana mine with an investment of USD 1 billion was formerly 100% owned by Equinox Minerals Resources Plc and is pending takeover by Barrick Gold. The company presently produces concentrates for onward processing to smelters at Nkana and Chambishi mines. The prospects of increasing concentrate and subsequent finished copper outturn in the near future looked bright because of the prospects of venturing into production of more copper concentrates with the new developments which has extended the lifespan of the mine, initially estimated to be exhausted in five years from now.

He said that our life blood now is Chimuwingo where we have not less than 1.5 billion tonnes of ore copper reserves and that will see us for another 27 to 45 years.

And senior metallurgist at Lumwana, Mr Reuben Mweseka the growth of the company would depend on the decisions to be made by Barrick Gold, the new owners especially on the construction of a smelter to process its concentrates into finished copper cathodes.

Presently Lumwana, despite its modern machines lacks a refinery and a smelter to finish the copper concentrates into finished products and relying on private contractors, including Zalawi Limited a local trucking company to transport its concentrates to Nkana and Chambishi mines for final copper production.

Mr Mweseka said that the company was presently stockpiling concentrates and uses a minimum of 20 trucks to transport concentrates to copper mine mines, which takes a minimum of 21 days before finished copper is produced.

He said that “If we had a smelter we would double the production of finished copper as a company but we have to rely on established companies to process the raw material into finished copper. The future of Lumwana is very bright because we are using the latest state of the art technology but the future of the company will depend on how Barrick Gold will plan.”

The rebranding of Equinox Minerals, owners of Lumwana mine by Barrick Gold has taken off and is expected to be completed into the next few months. Equinox with its subsidiary, Lumwana copper mine was procured by Barrick Gold recently for a value of USD 7.7 billion.

(Filed by Mr Kapembwa Sinkamba SteelGuru Correspondent Zambia)