On February 23, Zijin Mining announced that it plans to upgrade the existing facilities of the Kamoa-Kakula copper mine in Congo (DRC) within one year. After the upgrade is completed, the annual output of copper will reach more than 450,000 tons, making it the fourth largest copper mine in the world.
By the end of January, the accumulated surface mine pile has exceeded 4.4 million tons, copper grade 4.61 percent
The first phase of the Kamoa-Kakula copper Mine was completed and put into operation in May 2021, producing about 106,000 tons of mineral copper that year. In October 2020, the construction of the second phase of the project started, and the construction of the concentrator has been basically completed. It is expected to carry out the test run with materials in April this year. At the same time, the phase III design and preliminary work is progressing smoothly. The larger concentrator is expected to start production in the fourth quarter of 2024, and the preliminary work of the supporting 500,000 mt/a copper smelter is also in progress.
This capacity upgrade is to make full use of the existing facilities of the first and second phases of the project, and invest about 50 million US dollars to upgrade some pipes and equipment under the condition of continuous production. The total designed capacity of ore processing capacity will increase by about 21 percent from 7.6 million tons/year to 9.2 million tons/year.
Kamoa-kakura is one of the fastest growing major copper mines in the world, with a projected output of 290-340,000 tonnes in 2022. According to independent research, once the project is expanded to handle 19 mmtpa of ore, it will become the second largest copper producing mine in the world, with a maximum annual output of more than 800,000 mmtpa. The project will also have one of the lowest greenhouse gas emissions per unit of copper in the world, according to an independent audit by Hatch Canada.
In 2021, all three world-class copper projects of Zijin Mining were completed and put into operation, with 584,000 tons of mineral copper, up 28.9 percent year on year, making zijin one of the companies with the largest increase in mineral copper output in the world. In 2022, the main product target of Zijin Mining is 860,000 tons of copper, which will continue to maintain explosive growth. In the context of accelerated global energy transition, copper consumption growth potential is huge, copper prices are expected to maintain a long-term high operation. With several world-class projects, such as the Camoa copper mine, accelerating to or exceeding production, it will lay a solid foundation for the company to continue to leap-forward growth.
