Copper-laden African countries are seeing investors pull back on copper output to withstand the effects of the troubled sector and emerge intact once it turns around.

The copper price fell to a six-year low in November, closing at $2.17/lb on the back of economic data from China, which accounts for 45% of the world’s copper demand. The Asian country advised that growth in fixed investment – a key driver of copper demand – was at a 15-year low.

The African economies of Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are heavily influenced by the state of the copper market, with Zambia’s kwacha falling by more than 4% to the dollar in November to a new low on the decline of its main export, copper.

Konkola Copper Mines, owned by global diversified metals and mining company Vedanta Resources said last month, in response to reports that the company was set to close its operations, that it was making “unsustainable losses” at its Nchanga mine.

In addition, diversified mining and marketing major Glencore has revised its production targets for its operations in both the DRC and Zambia.

The company has updated its plans to reduce its forecast mined copper production by 455 000 t by the end of 2017, with the shutdown and restart plans for Katanga, in the DRC, and Mopani, in Zambia, having been completed.

Glencore states that, under the finalised plan, a phased restart and ramp-up at Katanga is planned for the first half of 2017.

The suspension of the DRC mine’s processing operations has been implemented with no incremental copper production expected during the remainder of 2015 and in 2016.

At Mopani, once the optimisation study has been completed, the smelter will continue to operate either at a reduced level or in campaigns to service ongoing long-term, third-party concentrate purchase contracts. Glencore plans to invest $950-million to expand and upgrade operations at Mopani.

The company has deferred investment in the new concentrator at Mopani until 2017 and full production will be resumed in 2018 on completion of this project.

Bloomberg reported that, in response to Glencore’s plans, which included the firing of about 4 000 workers, Zambian President Edgar Lungu warned Glencore against cutting jobs.

Lungu stated that Mopani should use the profits it made during times of high copper prices to sustain its present workforce, adding that, if mining companies had failed to run their operations effectively, the Zambian government would find other investors to take over.

Glencore has stated that all its social programmes in the region will continue and guarantee 80% retention of the workforce at Katanga.

Operations at the Mopani smelter will continue and, in order to run the smelter at an optimal level, some own-sourced concentrates primarily from the development of the Synclinorium and Mopani Deeps projects will continue to be processed.

Glencore noted on September 7 that the changes, compared with previous plans, would forego about 400 000 t of copper production over 18 months.

However, owing to Glencore’s phased approach to restarting Katanga and the deferral of Mopani’s concentrator investment, the company has revised this estimate to 455 000 t by end 2017.

In the first half of this year, Glencore’s African copper assets, consisting of Katanga and Mutanda, in the DRC, and Mopani produced 232 500 t, 20 000 t more than production in the first half of 2014.

Glencore states that it is reviewing Katanga’s and Mopani’s businesses, including operations and expenses, in light of the challenging environment for commodities.

The expansion and upgrade programmes are expected to provide a material reduction in overall operating costs at both operations.

Once complete, the programmes are expected to reduce net direct cash costs at Katanga and Mopani to $1.65/lb and $1.70/lb respect- ively from the more than $2.50/lb at which the mines currently operate.

Glencore will continue to fund the expansion and upgrade projects at both operations.

By the beginning of November, copper and gold producer Freeport McMoRan had cut nearly 200 000 t of production across four different mines in North and South America, with US mining, smelting and refining company Asarco also decreasing its copper output by 30 000 t.