By NATION REPORTER
KONKOLA Copper Mines (KCM) has rubbished a report on Bloomberg that operations at the Konkola Deep mine have been shut down.
The company expressed shock at the reports, saying that they were misleading.
KCM General Manager Corporate Affairs, Shapi Shachinda, said ever since the mine was placed under liquidation in May 2019, it had not been closed or put on care and maintenance.
Mr Shachinda said the mine was running and there were no plans to put it on care and maintenance now or in the future.
He said in addition to current operations, KCM was about to commence mining in a new area of Konkola known as Konkola East.
Mr Shachinda said the favourable prices had made it economical to open up new areas.
“The Bloomberg article is false and misleading. KCM plc learns with a sense of shock that,” said Mr Shachinda.
According to reports, a lack of capital halted production at a copper mine Zambia seized from Indian billionaire Anil Agarwal’s Vedanta Resources, just as the metal surges toward a record.
The standstill at Konkola Deep, a high-grade underground pit that also contains cobalt, was triggered by a shortage of funds to develop new mining areas, said Barnaby Mulenga, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Mines.
Mr Mulenga however also dispelled the reports, saying that a Bloomberg journalist called the Ministry through to enquire on the outcome of the just ended Mining Indaba and the Konkola Deep Project.
He said the Journalist was corrected twice to understand what the Konkola Deep Project was and he was specifically requested to follow up and obtain production figures for KCM.
“We are surprised to see an article claiming that KCM has shut down until arbitration was complete published which is not true,” Mr Mulenga said.
He said production at KCM in the first Quarter was 14,898.61 Tonnes which clearly shows that Production had continued.
Mr Mulenga said at no point had the Ministry ever said production was shut before and after the liquidation process.
“The story further claims that Taonga Clifford Mitimingi was spoken to when the person has never spoken to the Ministry officials on the matters written about,” he said.
Mr Mulenga demanded that Bloomberg retracts the ‘false’ story that misleads the public into thinking KCM operations were shut or halted until the arbitration was completed.
