(3 minutes read)
Zambia’s largest mining company – First Quantum Minerals (FQM), a listed company on Canada Stock Exchange- -has rejected allegations that it has been mining nickel at Kalumbila before commissioning the project
Zambia’s largest mining company – First Quantum Minerals (FQM), a listed company on Canada Stock Exchange- -has rejected allegations that it has been mining nickel at Kalumbila before commissioning the project. While doing so, the company announced that it approved a further US$100 million investment in its Enterprise Nickel project in Zambia. The project is expected to start production in 2023. This will ramp up the annual production to about 30,000 tonnes of nickel concentrate. The annual revenues of the company are expected to touch US$750 million.
The assertion of the company that it has not started mining nickel is seemingly a rebuttal to the charge of some miners closely associated with the company that nickel mining has already been taking place at the mine for some time now.
Mine Development experts have indicated that the timeline of six months which FQM had indicated to open and commission a large-scale nickel mine was practically too short. This is the main ground of suspicion that the pledged funds had already been invested by the time of announcement. Although FQM has refuted the allegations stating that there has not been any nickel mining in the past from the Kalumbila mine, views of the experts have cast some doubts about the veracity of the stand of the company.
Read Also:
https://trendsnafrica.com/zambia-pitches-for-change-in-afcfta-rules-of-local-value-addition/
https://trendsnafrica.com/zambia-takes-measures-to-promote-agriculture-to-promote-food-security/
Controversies apart, the commissioning of FQM’s Kalumbila-based Nickel mine will make Zambia Africa’s largest nickel producer. The country already has Munali Nickel mine at Mazabuka. The combined production of two mines will make Zambia the largest African producer of this metal used for the booming electric car industry
