Maravi

KCM strives to expand its African business

KCM strives to expand its African business
By Chiwoyu Sinyangwe
Sun 25 Apr. 2010, 04:20 CAT

KONKOLA Copper Mine (KCM) plans to use its successful implementation of the Konkola Deep Mining Project (KDMP) as a launch pad for its expansion in Africa, chief executive officer Kishore Kumar said yesterday.

KCM which is majority-owned by Vedanta Resources Plc recently completed the KDMP which together with other projects like Nchanga Smelter hopes to raise copper output at the country’s biggest copper mine to 500,000 tonnes per year from the current levels of 120,000.

KCM is the first mining project in Africa to be operated by Vedanta Resources Plc which operates in other countries like India and Australia.

Kumar said the successful implementation of key expansion projects had provided enough impetus to Vedanta Resources Plc to embark on searching for investment opportunities on the continent.

“KCM was the first venture in Africa and as KCM we are very happy with our performance and we have proved to the world at large that we are capable of running a good project with good guidelines with good timeframe,” Kumar said on Mid-morning show on ZNBC television yesterday. “…it satisfies us and satisfies the entire investor community that such good projects can be implemented.”

He said KCM was happy that employees had been at the centre of the expansion programme of the mine.

“Having done that and having put the vision to our employees to drive the production to half a million tonnes…KCM will continue nurturing skills and learning and be able to use this organisation as the fundamental bedrock to be able to spread out to opportunities that may come our way.”

Kumar said KCM was happy to have developed KDMP which he said had richest ore body in Africa and that the project would help the country to increase copper output from current 650, 000 tonnes per annum to one million tonnes in the next three to four years.

He said the projected increased production would help to restore Zambia’s status as one of the biggest copper producers in the world and rank the country among copper powerhouses like Chile.

Kumar called on the government to reduce the cost of doing business in the country by improving huge weaknesses in infrastructure.

On safety, Kumar said the company had greatly improved its safety levels in the last one year with the firm managing to operate last January without any injury to any of its employees.

Labels: KCM

posted by MrK @ 4:23 AM