Skorpion scid plant remains idle

Six months after Vedanta Zinc International announced plans to restart the sulphuric acid plant at the Skorpion Zinc Mine within four to six months, there is still no clear indication that the facility has been brought back into operation.

In September 2025, the company stated that the plant's recommissioning would be completed within that timeframe, positioning the restart as the first significant development at Skorpion since the mine was placed on care and maintenance in 2020.

The acid plant, originally constructed in the early 2000s, is an integral part of the refinery complex, designed to capture sulphur dioxide emissions from zinc processing and convert them into sulphuric acid. Once operational, the refurbished facility was expected to produce approximately 1,000 tonnes of sulphuric acid per day at a concentration of 98%, making it suitable for a wide range of industrial and metallurgical applications.

Vedanta framed the restart as both an environmental and economic intervention—reducing harmful emissions while producing a high-value industrial product. The company also issued a call for Expressions of Interest (EoI) for long-term off-take agreements covering both supply and logistics, with deliveries to be made ex-works. Six months later, however, the timeline has lapsed without confirmation of commissioning or production.

The delay comes against the backdrop of Skorpion’s shutdown in 2020, when the mine was placed on care and maintenance following the depletion of its zinc-oxide ore reserves and the increasing difficulty of processing the remaining material. The operation had been built around oxide ore, which is easier to treat than sulphide deposits. As those reserves were exhausted, the mine faced technical constraints requiring a different processing route and significant new capital to transition to sulphide ore, leading to the suspension of operations.

In August 2025, Viceroy Research published a report following a site visit, describing the Skorpion operation as displaying “textbook signs of asset decay,” pointing to prolonged inactivity, deteriorating infrastructure, and repeated slippage in restart timelines. The report questioned whether the asset could be brought back into operation within previously indicated timeframes. Vedanta rejected the report's findings.

A month later, the company announced plans to recommission the sulphuric acid plant within four to six months, signalling a return to activity at the site. That timeline has now passed.

Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) in Zambia, also owned by Vedanta Limited, offers a parallel case that helps frame the situation at Skorpion. In 2019, the Zambian government placed KCM under provisional liquidation, accusing Vedanta of failing to invest adequately in the operation, underperforming against production targets, and neglecting critical infrastructure. The move triggered a prolonged legal battle across Zambian courts and international jurisdictions, effectively removing Vedanta from operational control of one of the country’s largest copper assets.

During the years that followed, operations at KCM declined, with production falling sharply as underground systems deteriorated and maintenance backlogs grew. Deep mining operations, such as Konkola, rely on continuous pumping, ventilation, and infrastructure upkeep; prolonged disruptions placed additional strain on shafts, equipment, and processing facilities.

In 2024, Vedanta reached an agreement with the Zambian government to regain control of KCM, committing to inject significant capital—estimated at over US$1 billion—to rehabilitate the mine, settle creditor obligations, and restore production. Since then, operations have resumed in phases, but the asset remains in recovery mode, with refurbishment ongoing and output still below historical levels.

The KCM experience illustrates the complexity of restarting large-scale mining operations after periods of disruption. Years of legal uncertainty, underinvestment, and operational interruptions have translated into a technically demanding, capital-intensive recovery process—one that continues to unfold.

Vedanta’s challenges in the region extend further south. In South Africa, the company operates the Gamsberg Zinc Mine, one of its flagship zinc assets, alongside the Black Mountain Mining complex. Gamsberg has been positioned as a long-life, large-scale open-pit operation, but its development has not been without setbacks. In 2020, a geotechnical failure on the pit wall resulted in a fatal accident and led to a temporary suspension of mining activities, highlighting the technical risks of large-scale open-pit mining.

Although operations later resumed, the incident underscored the operational complexity of stabilising and expanding such assets. At the same time, mining operations in South Africa continue to face broader structural pressures, including power supply instability, rising input costs, and infrastructure constraints, all of which affect production planning and expansion timelines.

Taken together, Vedanta’s operations across Namibia, Zambia, and South Africa reflect a common challenge: the difficulty of sustaining and restarting large-scale mining assets under technical, financial, and operational pressure. At Skorpion, that challenge is now visible in the missed timeline. The restart of the sulphuric acid plant was presented as a near-term intervention—a contained project that could be executed within months. Six months later, the plant remains idle.

The restart remains significant for Namibia’s industrial landscape. Sulphuric acid is widely used in uranium mining, fertiliser production, metal processing, and water treatment, and Namibia currently imports most of its requirements. A functioning plant at Skorpion would reduce reliance on imports and support domestic supply.