First Quantum Minerals – FQM says the official date for commencement of production at its projected $800 million annual revenue enterprise Nickel project in Kalumbila has not yet been set as the miner is still in the stripping process.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with the Zambian Business Times – ZBT, FQM Government Relations Manager Dr Godwin Beene said there has not yet been the official date set as they have not yet completed the stripping process as the team has not yet reached the ore bodies.
Dr. Beene who is also Zambia Chamber of Mines President, said the mine is currently operational as the plant is already built, the team is mining and sooner or later they will reach the ore body and then the plant will be commissioned once the ore is available.
He said the commissioning will be done in stages and will be done after running for three to six months just to ensure that the plant is stable before commissioning and also to build to a steady state operation adding that the project is delivering the biggest Nickel mine in Africa.
“So the process is you mine, then you strip, you go and throw away the soils until when you are in the ore body then you prepare to take it to the plant and process it and at that point, we must commission the processing plant and then the nickel in concentrate should come out.” He explained.
He added that the launch of the processing plant will come at a time when all the all the people are trained and the plant is in a steady state operation.
FQM had announced on the 8 May 2022 that Enterprise Nickel Mine would be brought online within 12 months after the confirmation of an additional investment of $100 million to the $250 ‘enterprise nickel mine’ to bring the total investment to about $350 million.
The $250m Enterprise Nickel Mine which was officially launched by President Hakainde Hichilema in July 2022, is expected to create over 700 new permanent jobs.
Earlier ZBT had reported that once operational the project is expected to generate over $800 million which has the capacity to raise treasury income which part of the income will be channelled to support the free education policy.
Once operational, the enterprise will be on the top ten 10 global nickel mine producing 30, 000 tons of nickel in concentrate annually, which will make Zambia Africa’s pre-eminent nickel largest producer.
The company stated that the mine is expected to have an annual production of 30,000 ton per annum. With then Nickel spot prices of about $28,000 per ton, the annual revenues to be generated were expected to be about $810 million per annum, from a total reported investment of only $350 million
