The target of hitting three million tons of copper production per year by 2010/2011 announce by Finance Minister Situmbeko Musokotwane may be easier said than done as more mining, exploration and engineering experts express doubt on its feasibility.
The Association of Zambian Mineral Exploration Companies – AZMEC has also disclosed that the 3 million tons copper production target per annum for Zambia by 2030 is unachievable. This is after Zambia’s renowned Engineer Professor Clive Chirwa also indicated that the target is not achievable.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with the Zambian Business Times – ZBT, AZMEC President Evans Kanche said the target is a very ambitious but looking at the current happenings in the mining sector it is not possible to reach a production target of 3 million tons of copper per annum in nine years time.
He explained that the current existing mines only have the capacity to produce around 800,000 tons of copper per year, meaning there is need to do more than 3 times that much in the next eight years.
“It is a very ambitious target, unless something drastic happens, otherwise it is not attainable.
But if we had another two (2) or three (3) mines of the size of Kalumbila or Kansanshi coming on stream and then every mine doubling there current productions, then the target would be achieved.” He said. Unless something drastic happens.
The AZMEC President explained that “unless the existing mines are ready to start giving and start delivering, I don’t think they are, so in my view, it is not attainable unless a lot changes in terms of productions which cannot happen overnight.
Kanche told ZBT that Copper and mining in general is a long term business and usually you project 5 to 10 years to plan and look at what plans the mines have at the moment.”
Kanche said there is more that need to be done if the target is to be achieved in the next 8 years from now. He also said in the exploration sector, one of the biggest things that need to happen is the regional data search, as the country needs to be shown at the much higher resolution to attract investors in the exploration space to come and test whatever new information has been generated.
ZBT has been attempting to get a breakdown per annum and which projected mined would produce what quantities to review the feasibility of the 3 million target, but so far no details have been made public.
