Mining Weekly

Zambian State-run power company Zesco last month restored full power supply to base-metals miner First Quantum Minerals’ (FQM’s) Kansanshi copper operation and Sentinel project, in Zambia.

“This follows the receipt of notice of the declaration of force majeure for the supply of electricity from Zesco to Kansanshi and the subsequent reduction in electricity supply to both Kansanshi and Sentinel, as reported on July 27,” the company states.

While FQM believes some restrictions may be reimposed during the remainder of 2015, it notes that Zesco has stated that it has contracted independent power producers, including coal miner Maamba Collieries and power company the Itezhi Tezhi Power Corporation through the signing of power purchase agreements to procure more electricity by the end of 2015.

The restoration of power follows FQM’s decision to idle its Sentinel processing plant and redirect its power supply to enable its Kansanshi mine to operate as close to capacity as possible, thereby maintaining its development momentum, as power restrictions were imposed in Zambia, in July.

Instead of running Kansanshi and Sentinel at reduced capacities, FQM focused on Kansanshi and its smelter, which reached commercial production status ahead of expectation during the second quarter, Mining Weekly reported in July.

“Electricity supply to the Sentinel project was cut to 42 MW from 55 MW, while electricity supply to Kansanshi, including the smelter, was reduced to 117 MW from a steady-state level of 153 MW,” Mining Weekly reported.

However, the ramp-up and commercial production date of the Sentinel project, which had been making steady progress to date, would now be delayed for an unspecified period, the company reported, in July.

Commercial production of Sentinel had been on track for the third quarter of this year, with all the required power set to be connected by August, Creamer Media’s Research Channel Africa reported last month; however, FQM is assessing the effect of the shutdown on its production guidance for the full financial year.

Meanwhile, total physical copper production at Sentinel was expected to be between 80 000 t and 100 000 t. Overall, FQM had indicated a guidance of between 410 000 t and 440 000 t of copper for the year.

Quarterly Performance
FQM noted in its second quarterly report in July that, the average copper recovery achieved for June was above design at 97.69%, while, during the six-month commissioning and ramp-up period, 157 600 t of copper concentrate was processed.

The copper concentrate comprised a mixture of stockpiled and fresh concentrate from the Kansanshi mine and fresh concentrate from the Sentinel mine.
Further, the company highlights that realised benefits to the Kansanshi mine to date include reduced concentrate inventory, increased use of the oxide leach circuit – more than 25% higher than in the first quarter of 2015 – improved availability of sulphuric acid, as well as improved access to smelter capacity.

Other quarterly highlights – prior to the power reductions – are that all aspects of Sentinel continue to ramp up during the second quarter . . . “while Train 1 achieved periods of above nameplate capacity”, FQM states.