Times of Zambia reported that the Macrolink Group, owners of Zambia Mwekera Copper project will commence construction of a large scale copper mine in Ndola next year and has so far invested USD 5 million on the mine’s groundwork.

Mr Ding Bao Lei deputy GM of Macrolink Group said that all was in place for the construction of the mine expected to start in 2013. The mine once operational would have a production capacity of more than 40,000 tonnes of copper per month saying, the mining firm was set to create more than 500 jobs.

He said that “We will have the production capacity of 1,500 tonnes per day and will employ 550 Zambians once the construction of the mine starts. We are behind schedule by three months and we are likely to start the construction of the copper mine next year. We have invested nearly US$5 million on the preparation of the mine. We have made a presentation to the Ministry of Mines Permanent Secretary regarding the default notice which was served to us in March this year. They have presented to the Government what they have done in the past 2 years after the mining licence was obtained.”

Mr Victor Mutambo mines permanent secretary said that the process of the mining companies to make a presentation to the ministry was to ensure that firms with active mining licences update the Government about the developments and their plans. It was the desire of the ministry to see to it that Mwekera Copper mine was developed quickly.

Dr Mutambo said that “We know a lot of money has been pumped into this project and we hope our colleagues can move quickly to implement the project and then we will be talking about the new mine on the Copperbelt.”

Source - Times of Zambia

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