Skorpion: Underground lifeline unlikely
If Vedanta decides underground operations won’t be viable, the company will convert the Skorpion refinery to treat different ores.
It may not be possible to mine underground in Namibia when Vedanta Resource's open-pit operations at Skorpion Zinc become exhausted around 2020.
"As it stands, we might only extend the mine life by another two to three years," Deshnee Naidoo, head of Vedanta's Africa Base Metals unit, told Reuters on Monday.
In February, Reuters quoted Naidoo as saying Vedanta was investigating whether it could mine underground in Namibia when its open pit operations at Skorpion Zinc will be exhausted.
If Vedanta decides underground operations would not be viable, Naidoo then said the company would convert the Skorpion refinery, whose current capacity is 150 000 tonnes per year, to treat different ores, meaning it could process third-party material, thereby maintaining a foothold in Namibia.
"We really do not want to leave Namibia," she said at the time.
Skorpion is expected to produce about 90 000 tonnes of zinc this year, reaching approximately 130 000 tonnes by 2020.
Zambia
Vedanta plans to double finished copper production at Zambia's Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) to 200 000 tonnes this year, Naidoo said on Monday.
KCM has ploughed more than US$3 billion into the southern African country’s copper mines since 2004, including a further US$1 billion investment package announced last year to revamp and upgrade some mines as well as build a new refinery and power plant.
"Last year we produced just under 100 000 tonnes and I want us to get to 200 000 tonnes this year," Naidoo told Reuters, adding that KCM is on track to produce 400 000 tonnes of copper a year in the next few years.
Vedanta also plans to invest US$300 million in a 300 megawatt (MW) coal-fired power plant in Zambia and has started pre-feasibility studies, she said.
Gamsberg
Naidoo said the company is also looking at building another power plant at a zinc refinery at Gamsberg in the Northern Cape region of South Africa.
Vedanta is already bringing on new production at Gamsberg, where output should start within a month, ramping up to full production of 250 000 tonnes annually in about a year, she said.
It is envisaged that at least a portion of Gamsberg’s zinc-in-concentrate production will be trucked to the Skorpion Zinc refinery in Namibia for refining, according to VZI’s website.
During a meeting with finance minister Calle Schlettwein in November 2014, Vedanda’s chief executive officer for Africa-based metals, Rajagopal Kishore Kumar, said the company approved US$782 million towards the conversion of the Skorpion Zinc refinery in Namibia and the development of the open-pit zinc mine in Gamsberg from 2015 to 2017. Of this, US$152 million (around N$1.9 billion at yesterday’s exchange rate) was earmarked for Skorpion to enable it to refine zinc sulphide concentrates from the Gamsberg mine into special high-grade zinc metal. – Nampa/Reuters and own report
"As it stands, we might only extend the mine life by another two to three years," Deshnee Naidoo, head of Vedanta's Africa Base Metals unit, told Reuters on Monday.
In February, Reuters quoted Naidoo as saying Vedanta was investigating whether it could mine underground in Namibia when its open pit operations at Skorpion Zinc will be exhausted.
If Vedanta decides underground operations would not be viable, Naidoo then said the company would convert the Skorpion refinery, whose current capacity is 150 000 tonnes per year, to treat different ores, meaning it could process third-party material, thereby maintaining a foothold in Namibia.
"We really do not want to leave Namibia," she said at the time.
Skorpion is expected to produce about 90 000 tonnes of zinc this year, reaching approximately 130 000 tonnes by 2020.
Zambia
Vedanta plans to double finished copper production at Zambia's Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) to 200 000 tonnes this year, Naidoo said on Monday.
KCM has ploughed more than US$3 billion into the southern African country’s copper mines since 2004, including a further US$1 billion investment package announced last year to revamp and upgrade some mines as well as build a new refinery and power plant.
"Last year we produced just under 100 000 tonnes and I want us to get to 200 000 tonnes this year," Naidoo told Reuters, adding that KCM is on track to produce 400 000 tonnes of copper a year in the next few years.
Vedanta also plans to invest US$300 million in a 300 megawatt (MW) coal-fired power plant in Zambia and has started pre-feasibility studies, she said.
Gamsberg
Naidoo said the company is also looking at building another power plant at a zinc refinery at Gamsberg in the Northern Cape region of South Africa.
Vedanta is already bringing on new production at Gamsberg, where output should start within a month, ramping up to full production of 250 000 tonnes annually in about a year, she said.
It is envisaged that at least a portion of Gamsberg’s zinc-in-concentrate production will be trucked to the Skorpion Zinc refinery in Namibia for refining, according to VZI’s website.
During a meeting with finance minister Calle Schlettwein in November 2014, Vedanda’s chief executive officer for Africa-based metals, Rajagopal Kishore Kumar, said the company approved US$782 million towards the conversion of the Skorpion Zinc refinery in Namibia and the development of the open-pit zinc mine in Gamsberg from 2015 to 2017. Of this, US$152 million (around N$1.9 billion at yesterday’s exchange rate) was earmarked for Skorpion to enable it to refine zinc sulphide concentrates from the Gamsberg mine into special high-grade zinc metal. – Nampa/Reuters and own report
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