Zambia's 2006 Copper Output to Rise to 600,000 Tons (Update1)
2006-02-08 10:21 (New York)
By Antony Sguazzin
Feb. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Zambia, Africa's biggest copper
producer, may produce about 600,000 metric tons of the metal
this year, a third more than in 2005, as new mines open, the
country's Chamber of Mines said.
Copper output will rise from about 450,000 tons last year,
said Frederick Bantubonse, general manager of Zambia's Chamber
of Mines, in an interview at the Investing in African Mining
conference in Cape Town today. Production could rise to as much
as 800,000 tons within three to four years, he said.
``The 600,000 tons is very feasible,'' Bantubonse said.
Zambia is trying to take advantage of copper prices that
have risen to a record this year to boost earnings from the
metal, which accounts for about 70 percent of its export income.
Vedanta Resources Plc, First Quantum Minerals Ltd. and Glencore
International AG run mines in the country.
Equinox Minerals Ltd. is currently developing a 188,000-
ton-a-year copper mine in the country.
Still, expansion may be slowed by inadequate road, rail and
power infrastructure, Bantubonse said. Output last year was cut
after the country's sole oil refinery, Total SA's Indeni, broke
down repeatedly, depriving mines of diesel.
Profits have also been cut by the advance of the Zambian
kwacha against the dollar, which has crimped profit margins, he
said. The kwacha has gained 32 percent against the dollar in the
last year.
The chamber, which represents all of the country's major
copper miners, hasn't received a response to its queries to the
government about Finance Minister Ngandu Magande's comment
yesterday that mining royalties may be raised, Bantubonse said.
He also said he expects copper prices to fall in coming
years as producers around the world expand.
``With so many countries going into copper I can't see
prices lasting,'' he said.
Zambia's copper production has been rising in recent years
as the government sold the industry back to private investors
after taking it over from Anglo American Plc in the early 1970s.
Under-investment by the state had slashed annual output from
about 500,000 tons to 200,000 tons a year.
--With reporting by Nasreen Seria in Johannesburg. Editor:
Wallace (jao) |
