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Zambia KCM To Invest $50 Million In Upgrades At Its Nchanga Mine

Zambia’s largest copper miner, Konkola Copper Mines is planning to spend at least $50 million to upgrade its Nchanga unit to make it environmentally compliant, the company announced late Saturday.

Company spokeswoman Jacqueline Kabeta said that KCM, a unit of London-listed Vedanta Resources PLC (VED.LN) has stepped up plans to fulfill its current and future commitment to minimizing environmental impact at all its operations on the Copperbelt.

Unlike the Nchanga unit, KCM’s other units including the Nkana copper refinery, the 300,000 tons-a-year Nchanga smelter, the Nampundwe Konkola mines have been certified under international the Environmental Management System Certification process, Kabeta added.

“KCM will spend $50 million for projects relating to the environmental management plan being implemented at Nchanga mine which is not yet ISO certified to make it environmentally compliant,” she said. “The pre-assessment audit for Nchanga will take place in June this year and the actual assessment will take place in December.”

In recent years, KCM has been accused by the state environmental watchdog, the Environmental Council of Zambia of polluting the Kafue River, a source of domestic water for Copperbellt residents which passes through the mine property.

In November, a Zambian court fined KCM at least $4,449 for polluting the river. According to Kabeta, the pollution has mainly been caused by operational failure at KCM’s tailings leach plant due to obsolete equipment. The upgrades will involve the replacement waste pumps and pipes that can withstand high levels of acidity and are not prone to breakdowns.

Since Vedanta took over KCM in 2004, it has invested at least $1.5 billion in various upgrades and is targeting to raise annual copper output to 400,000 metric tons by 2014 from 173,000 tons last year.

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