First Quantum sees growth for Zambia mines
By Allan Seccombe
JOHANNESBURG, July 4 (Reuters) - Canadian miner First Quantum Minerals Ltd said on Wednesday it would expand its copper and sulphuric acid operations in Zambia to a projected 170,000 tonnes of copper in 2005 from around 58,000 tonnes in 2001.
First Quantum entered Zambia in 1998 and reached full production at its wholly-owned Bwana Mkubwa operation of 9,261 tonnes in its first full operating year, the miner's operations manager Matt Pascall said.
But output was seen climbing to 170,000 tonnes at cash operating cost of 45 U.S. cents a lb.
The price of copper was expected to stay at around 73 U.S. cents a lb and rise to 80 cents next year, Pascall told an African copper mining conference in Johannesburg.
Bwana Mkubwa currently produces about 10,000 tonnes of London Metals Exchange (LME) grade copper cathode a year, but this was expected to rise to 30,000-40,000 tonnes a year once ore was brought in from First Quantum's Lonshi mine across the border in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, he said.
``The extension required to treat that material at Bwana Mkubwa will be constructed during 2002,'' he said.
First Quantum also holds a 44 percent stake in Mopani Copper Mines, with Glencore International AG holding 46 percent and the Zambian government through the state-owned Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines holding 10 percent.
Mopani owns Mufulira and Nkana. Mufulira has one mining zone, a concentrator and a smelter and refinery. Nkana has two mining zones, a concentrator and also cobalt plant.
Production at Nkana was seen at 2.7 million tonnes of ore per annum when it was privatised, but output was seen doubling in five years to 5.5 million tonnes.
``This is because of an improvement in the grade and material as a result of mining technique,'' Pascall said.
There were four shafts to mine Nkana. Each area had about 12 million tonnes of reserves remaining, he said.
GOOD PROSPECTS
``There is a western limb, which was always considered to have a low grade mineralisation, but the prospects of having a mineralisation of a decent grade on that have enormous ramifications for the future. It could be a duplicate of what has already been mined,'' he said.
Nkana was seen to have total reserves and resources of 186 million tonnes with a grade of 2.28 percent of copper that would give the mine an additional 50 years of life.
At Mufulira the company was considering whether it should shut down its furnace in 12 months to rebuild it or replace it, despite it being in fairly good operation condition.
``During the next year we will decide if we will take it off line for several months and rebuild the furnace and enlarge it to produce a good deal more than its 160,000 tonnes or rather than shut it down, build a replacement furnace alongside it, using newer technology,'' he said.
First Quantum is also looking to acquire U.S. copper producer Phelps Dodge's (NYSE:PD - news) interest in the Kansanshi copper-gold deposit near the Democratic Republic of Congo border.
Kansanshi, originally thought to have reserves of 50 million tonnes, had been found to have a 267 million tonne resource with a grade of 1.28 percent and 0.16 grams of gold per tonne.
The 110,000 tonne/year sulphuric acid plants at Bwana Mkubwa was being expanded by 50 percent and would be commissioned in the next three months. It would supply acid for Bwana Mkubwa's expanded operation, Kansanshi, and increase sales to other miners in the copper belt. |
