Chinese-owned NFC Africa Mining, a unit of China Nonferrous Metal Mining Group Co., has been selected to take over Luanshya Copper Mines, which has been under care and maintenance since December, the president of the National Union of Miners and Allied Workers told Dow Jones Newswires Friday.
"The president has just announced NFC Africa Mining as the winner of the bidding process to take over Luanshya, [and] as a union we are delighted," Sikufela Mundia said by telephone from Kitwe, in the Copper Belt province.
Until its closure in December last year, Luanshya was Zambia's largest cobalt producer, with an annual capacity to produce up to 4,000 metric tons of cobalt and 40,000 tons of copper.
The company was also developing $351-million Mulyanshi copper project, expected to produce an average of 60,000 tons of copper a year throughout its 10-year life span when it starts output.
NFC Africa Mining already owns Chambishi Copper mines as well as the 150,000 ton-a-year Chambishi copper smelter on the Copper Belt, Other companies which had bided for Lunsahya included London-listed Vedanta Resources PLC. Company officials weren't immediately available for comment.
Mundia said NFC Africa is expected to resume output at the mine before the end of May and it will rehire around 1,700 miners who were laid off when the company closed down.
Chinese-owned companies continue to invest in Zambia's mining sector, in search of minerals for resource hungry China, however, they are unpopular among mine workers and politicians who accuse them of having poor labour policies.
Source: Marketwatch
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