TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – First Quantum on Friday confirmed it restarted operations at its Kansanshi copper mine in Zambia, after a strike curbed output for two days this week.

Negotiations with the labour unions are continuing, the TSX- and LSE-listed company said.

On Thursday, Reuters reported that the members of the Mine Workers' Union of Zambia had returned to work.

Kansanshi is Vancouver-based First Quantum’s flagship mine, producing 231 000 t of copper and 110 000 oz of gold in 2010.

The company, which also mines copper in Mauritania and nickel in Western Australian, announced on Thursday it struck a deal with LSE-listed ENRC that will see the Kazakh company paying it $1.25-billion for the Canadian companies residual Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) assets.

First Quantum was suing ENRC after it bought the licence to one of its former mines in the Central African country, after the government cancelled the permit. As part of the deal, First Quantum agreed to drop legal proceedings against both ENRC and the DRC government.
 

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