Zambia's Konkola Copper Mines Accident Kills 1; Impact On Ou

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Zambia's Konkola Copper Mines Accident Kills 1; Impact On Output Unclear

By Nicholas Bariyo & contributing to Dow Jones Newswires

Published July 06, 2011



Konkola Copper Mines, Zambia's second-largest mining company by output, said Tuesday that one miner died after an accident during maintenance at its Konkola Mine division, located in Chililabombwe.

The miner, who was working for a company contracted by KCM to repair the mine's concentrator, died Monday, spokesman Shapi Sachinda said in a statement.

"KCM has launched investigations into the cause of the incident," he said, without providing details on the cause of the accident or any impact it will likely have on output.

"The company would like to assure that it will take corrective measures to prevent similar incidents from reoccurring," he added.

Konkola Copper Mines is a unit of London-listed Vedanta Resources PLC (VED.LN).

The company is rehabilitating copper plants at Chililabombwe, which is in Zambia's Copperbelt province, as it prepares to begin full-scale production at its $400 million deep-mine project.

The project involves drilling a shaft to access richer ore bodies beneath the mine property, according to Billy Sakala, the project manager.

The completion of the expansion will increase KCM's production to at least 400,000 metric tons of copper a year by 2012, Vedanta Chief Executive Mahendra Singh Mehta said in a June 30 statement.

KCM produced 217,000 tons of copper cathode in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2010.

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