By Nicholas Bariyo
Special to DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
Zambia's third largest copper and cobalt producer said Friday it
will complete upgrades at its Mufulira Copper Smelter in December
2013, 18 months ahead of schedule as the miner steps up efforts to
boost production and minimize pollution.
The completion of the $114 million upgrade at the smelter will
help the company to start manufacturing acid from sulphur dioxide
emissions and ease the fractious relationship with the country's
authorities over pollution. Mopani is a unit of U.K.-listed
Glencore International AG (GLEN.LN)
"This project is in its third and final phase and is expected to
be completed ... 18 months earlier than initially agreed with the
government," the company said in an emailed statement.
The Mufulira smelter treats at least 800,000 metric tons of
copper concentrates from the company's mines in the Copperbelt
province as well as third party concentrates from a number of other
miners operating in Africa's largest copper producing nation, which
is struggling under the burden on inadequate copper treatment
facilities.
In April last year, the state-run Zambia Environmental
Management Agency ordered the closure of Mopani's leach plant at
Mufulira for nearly three weeks after it polluted the environment.
Company officials said the company was losing around $100,000 a day
during the closure.
opani has invested around $2 billion into its Zambian assets,
breathing a new life into the ailing facilities that were on the
verge of collapsing in the early 2000s, amid low global copper
prices.
Other expansion projects in Zambia include the Synclinorium
Shaft at Nkana mine, which will extend the life of the mine by 25
years and safeguard about 3,000 jobs. Currently, the company has
the capacity to produce around 200,000 tons of finished copper a
year.
Write to Nicholas Bariyo at nicholas.bariyo@dowjones.com
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