Zambia’s largest copper mine to construct power transmissio

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Zambia’s largest copper mine to construct power transmission line from Lusaka West to Solwezi
Time Posted: January 28, 2013 6:43 am


FIRST Quantum Minerals Limited (FQML), Zambia’s largest copper mine, will this year start the construction of a US$230 million (KR1.22 billion) power transmission line from Lusaka West to Solwezi in North-Western Province for their latest mine, Sentinel at Kalumbila.

FQML Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Matt Pascall said in Solwezi that his company was in talks with Zesco over the 330 kilovolts transmission line that would cover a minimum distance of about 400km.

Mr Pascall said FQML had already agreed terms with Zesco who were just awaiting a go-ahead from the Zambia Public Procurement Agency (ZPPA) to get started and hoped the project quickly got approval.

“We are in talks with Zesco for the construction of a power transmission line from Lusaka West in Lusaka up to our new mine Sentinel here in Solwezi. This will cost at least $230 million and projected to be done by June next year.

“It’s really a race against time and we are anxiously waiting for Mr Cyprian Chitundu (Zesco MD) to call us and give us the good news. Otherwise, we are ready to start,” said Mr Pascall who was flanked by Kansanshi Mine assistant General Manager Alan Delaney.

FQML, the largest tax paying company to Government, were investing more than $2billion into Sentinel Mine at Kalumbila and would be Africa’s biggest copper mine with a capacity to produce well over 500 000 tonnes of copper concentrate per year .

FQML pays an average $1.5 million in taxes to Government everyday which comes to about 12 per cent of taxes government collects and more than 80 per cent of all taxes Government collect from mining companies.

Zambia is faced with a power deficit and has been pushed to new heights by the increase in the mining sector whose production levels were nearing record figures for Zambia.

And with Sentinel coming on board which would be Africa’s largest single copper project, the challenge is made bigger prompting FQML to fund the construction of a Zesco power line.

Mr Pascall said Zesco had a number of projects to increase Zambia’s power generation capacity with expansion to Kariba North Bank as well as the Kafue Lower Gorge and that once these two and a number of others like the Itezhi-tezhi coming on, the country would have sufficient power.

“But for now, we are the ones who need the power soonest, so we are ready to fund this project upfront. All the $230 million we shall give to do up the power line and we shall recover the money over a period of five years,” he said.

He said the power line would pass through and tap power from the Tata owned 120 megawatts Itezhi-tezhi hydro-power station currently under construction, to Kalumbila Minerals limited (KML) which should become operational in June 2014.

He said Zesco would ultimately own the power line after five years when the repayment programme was completed and that half of the money would be paid as cash while the other half would be recovered through bills for power supplied to the mine.

Asked if the delay by the ZPPA to give the project a go-ahead would jeopardise the mine, Mr Pascall said the firm would look for partial power supply from other sources while waiting for the new one to come alive.

He named the newly constructed 120km power line from Kansanshi to Kalumbila, some power from the Copperbelt Energy Company (CEC), Kabompo Gorge and the Maamba Thermal plant as some of the projects to that could in the meantime feed the Sentinel mine.

“We have faith in Zesco. We told them we want a good project with good tender procedures. We know that once the ZPPA approves, we shall have a good project. Zesco engineers are excellent, we have worked with them before and they are better than engineers from other countries,” he said.