Copper up over 3c, I think the import of this story is starting to be recognised. I would not want to be short copper.
Explosion at Zambia Chambishi Plant Kills at Least 32 (Update1)
2005-04-20 10:41 (New York)
(Adds increase in death toll in first paragraph, and owners
of mine in fourth paragraph.)
By Anthony Mukwita and Nasreen Seria
April 20 (Bloomberg) -- An explosion at Chambishi Nonferrous
Mines Ltd. in Zambia killed at least 32 workers today, Mines
Minister Kaunda Lembalemba said.
The blast occurred at a factory where explosives were being
manufactured for local copper mines and for export, he said by
telephone en route to the site in Kitwe, about 400 kilometers
(250 miles) from the capital Lusaka.
``We have sent a government team to assess the situation and
get more details,'' Lembalemba said. He said he didn't yet know
the cause of the explosion.
The mine is 85 percent owned by China Nonferrous Metal
Industry's Foreign Engineering and Construction Co Ltd. and 15
percent owned by the Zambian government. China Nonferrous bought
the stake in March 1998 and aimed to produce between 5,200 metric
tons and 6,000 tons of copper ore a day within four years.
Copper output in Zambia, Africa's biggest producer of the
metal, may decline as production at the Chambishi mine is
disrupted and supplies of explosives to other local copper mines
falls, Lembalemba said.
``There is likely to be a drop in copper production looking
at the magnitude of the accident,'' he said.
Today's accident was the third this year in Zambia's
Copperbelt region.
--Editor: A. Brown |
