Zambia will this month pick the preferred investor for Mopani Coper mines having identified four potential investors.
Finance and National Planning Minister Situmbeko Musokotwane announced on Sunday that the four shortlisted companies are: China’s Zijin Mining, Norinco Group, Sibanye Stillwater and an investment vehicle owned by ex-Glencore Plc officials.
In an interview with state-owned Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation TV.
Situmbeko said that the companies were now being asked to put in their last, final bids with the selection of one investor expected by the end of July.
Mopani recently announced a deeper financial loss last year and lower output, its operator ZCCM Investment Holdings said.
Its financial losses widened to $298 million from $74.2 million in 2021, ZCCM said in its latest financial report. Copper output at the operations declined to 72,694 tons from 87,618 tons, impacted by a 45-day smelter maintenance shutdown.
Mopani Copper Mines Plc is a multi-faceted mining investment with operations in Kitwe and Mufulira districts of the Copperbelt Province. The company’s operations encompass the full range of the copper production chain: from extracting the ore underground to concentrating, smelting, refining and packaging the finished red metal for export.
The Zambian company is owned by ZCCM Investment Holdings Plc (ZCCM-IH), a diversified mining investments and operations company with a primary listing on the Lusaka Securities Exchange in Zambia, and secondary listings on the London Stock Exchange in the United Kingdom and the Euronext Access Exchange in Paris, France.
ZCCM-IH assumed ownership of Mopani Copper Mines Plc in 2021 after buying off the majority stake in the mine from Carlisa Investments – a joint venture between Swiss commodity trader Glencore and Canadian-based First Quantum Minerals – which ran Mopani from privatisation in 2000.
With a rich history in mining and processing dating back to the 1930s, Mopani’s assets in Kitwe and Mufulira include underground mines, concentrators, a smelter and a refinery. Mopani Copper Mines Plc continues to upgrade its infrastructure by investing in new technologies to increase production and improve efficiencies.
The new infrastructure includes three deep shafts (Synclinorium, Mindola and Henderson), which were sunk and equipped between 2014 and 2021 to extend the life of the mine by over 25 years, safeguard the existing jobs at both mine sites and ensure Mopani’s continuous contribution to Zambia’s economic development.
