Enya Holdings BV will operate Zambia's largest cobalt producer Chambishi Metals Plc which was shutdown in December last year, mines minister Maxwell Mwale said on Monday.
Chambishi Metals Plc was part of the Luanshya Copper Mines (LCM), which also operated the Baluba copper mine.
Before shutting down, Chambishi had planned to spend $354 million to develop the Mulyashi copper project, forecast to produce 60,000 tonnes of copper cathode by 2010.
Chambishi had planned to raise cobalt output to 5,000 tonnes in 2008 from around 3,000 tonnes in 2007 before halting operations due to the fallout of the global economic crisis.
"It is the Enya Holdings Group that will operate Chambishi Metals. They will be importing the raw materials (copper concentrate) from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to produce cobalt," Mwale told Reuters in response to a question about which investor would be handed Chambishi Metals Plc.
Chambishi Metals was processing cobalt from raw materials at its Nkana Slag damps and raw materials from Baluba mine.
Enya Holdings, had interests in both the Bein Stein Group Resources (BSRG) and International Minerals Resources (IRM), the joint owners of LCM before it stopped production.
Mwale said the government and Enya Holdings would conclude a deal for operating Chambishi Metals soon.
China's Nonferrous Metals Corporation was a fortnight ago awarded the right to run the Luanshya copper mines and pledged to invest $400 million to revamp its operations.
Source: Reuters
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