Overview

Mine Type	Open Pit
Status	Active
Commodities	Copper
Mining Method	Truck & Shovel / Loader
Production Start	...
Mine Life	...
Snapshot	Nchanga operation include a number of open-pit mines, a large underground mine (care and maintenance), Tailings Leach Plant (TLP) with the associated solvent extraction electro winning (“SX-EW”) facility, a smelter with a cobalt recovery furnace, and a sulphuric acid plant and copper concentrators comprising two main processing units and a refractory ore stockpile. The Zambian government seized Vedanta's copper assets in 2019. On 6 November 2023, Vedanta Resources and the Zambian government sealed an agreement that restores the ownership of Konkola Copper Mines (KCM), ending a protracted ownership battle. Vedanta Resources has not published production numbers since 2019.

Deposit type

• Sediment-hosted

Summary:

Copper mineralisation is zoned, with shallower oxidation and supergene mineralisation (chalcocite, malachite and cuprite and less common native copper, chrysocolla and azurite) giving way to primary chalcopyrite, bornite, and chalcocite with pyrite developed below. In most orebodies average grades are fairly consistent over large areas. In the so-called Chingola Refractory Ore (CRO), low-grade copper oxide mineralisation occurs within the crystal lattice of micas and between the mica plates.

Primary mineralisation is hosted within two stratigraphic horizons:
the Lower Ore Body (LOB)
the Upper Ore Body (UOB)

The LOB ranges from a few metres to up to 40 m in thickness and is essentially unfolded and is separated from the UOB by a bedding parallel thrust plane. It can be traced in the NOP over distances in excess of 6km and dips 25° northward for most of its strike length. In the area of the current underground workings, it has been identified to a vertical depth of 900 m. However, it rapidly thins down-dip due to the development of arenaceous facies within the LOB, which limits the future potential of the mine. The LOB is hosted primarily in the Lower Banded Shale and Transition Arkose and has an assay footwall, which may extend into the stratigraphic unit below. Mineralisation in the Transition Arkose is nuggety making grade estimations challenging. Overall the LOB contains average in situ grades from 3% to 5%TCu.

The UOB is some 30 m to 40 m stratigraphically above the LOB and lies within the Feldspathic Quartzite and to a lesser extent in the Upper Banded Shale. It is 10 m to 40 m thick on average and in places is deformed by tight isoclinal folding. The UOB contains from 2%TCu to 3%TCu and has been traced for over 5 km along strike to a depth of 600 m. Cobalt mineralisation with grades of up to 0.7%TCo occurs within the UOB primarily in the Feldspathic Quartzite (TFQ) with an assay hanging wall that extends into the overlying Upper Banded Shale.

Mining Methods

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Comminution

Crushers and Mills

Processing

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Production

Operational metrics

Metrics	2020	2019	2018	2017	2016	2015
Annual milling capacity	....			9.5 Mt
Ore tonnes mined	....	4,007,474 t	11,469,134 t	11,237,492 t	10,299,672 t	10,676,035 t

Personnel

Job Title	Name	Profile	Ref. Date
.......................	.......................		Nov 28, 2023
.......................	.......................		Nov 28, 2023
.......................	.......................		Nov 28, 2023
.......................	.......................		Nov 28, 2023