Luanshya Copper plans to invest at least USD 25 million

Luanshya Copper Mine, a unit of Non China Ferrous Mining on the copper rich region of Zambia plans to invest at least USD 25 million to upgrade the Luanshya Copper to meet production needs.

Mr Sydney Chileya company spokesperson said that there are plans by the miner to reorganize and upgrade the factory's machines and equipment to boost cooper ore output at one of the country’s oldest mines set up in 1936.

China Nonferrous Metals acquired an 80 percent stake in Luanshya Copper Mines for USD 50 million and the unit covers an area of 145 square kilometers with total ore reserve of 181.8 million tonnes.

Last year, the NFCA also listed in Hong Kong and also owners of Chambishi mine announced plans to invest more than USD 400 million in Luanshya Copper Mines by 2012 to increase copper product output to 60,000 tons from the present 40,000 tonne per annum because of the increased demand of the metal on the international market.

In a related development Luanshya copper mine spent about USD 30 million to procure procure 17 dump trucks to speed up works at the construction site for the Greenfield, Mulyashi Open pit mine expected to be commissioned by December 2011.

Mr Chileya the procurement of trucks, development of the Mulyashi project has speeded up the removal of earth covering the copper ore underground which it expects to start mining at the close of this year. Presently about 10 million tonnes of earth of the expected 15 million tonnes has been removed, after the mines acquired the dump trucks that increased the work offloaded from the earth covered copper ore body at the world be mine.

It is anticipated that the rain season almost finishing in Zambia, Luanshya Copper Mine will excavate substantial amount of earth covering the ore body before the set deadline of December 31 when the mine is expected to be operational. The total investment for Mulyashi, which has since ben approved by the Zambian government has risen to date from USD 350 million to more than USD 400 million of which of which USD 180 million had been spent.

Mulyashi copper mine when operational is expected to produce more than 30,000 tonnes of finished copper and employ more than 1,000 people at the mine, once a ghost time after the former owners, Enya Holdings left in 2008 at the height of the global crisis that affected copper prices on the metal market.