Aim-listed ZCCM Investment Holdings (ZCCM-IH) has given its shareholder approval for a new $498-million new tailings leach plant (TLP) at Konkola Copper Mines (KCM), in Zambia, in which ZCCM-IH holds a 20.6% stake.

The TLP will reprocess tailings from the Tailings Dam 5 (TD5) at Nchanga to deliver about 70 000 t/y of copper cathode at full capacity.

With shareholder approval secured, KCM has signed a $498-million engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) agreement with China NERIN Engineering Company.

ZCCM-IH says decades of operations at Nchanga have built up a large secondary resource in the TD5, estimated at 546-million tonnes grading 0.54% copper.

Studies have confirmed a commercial recovery rate of 74% using solvent extraction and electrowinning (SX-EW), producing London Metal Exchange (LME) Grade A cathodes. The plant is designed to process 53 500 t of tailings a day, or 17.7-million tonnes a year.

Under the EPC agreement, China NERIN will deliver the plant on a turnkey basis, building on its prior design work for the project and will support commissioning, performance testing and training.

Implementation is expected to take 24 months, with output rising to full capacity of about 70 000 t/y from the fourth year of operation.

By turning historical tailings into revenue, ZCCM-IH explains that the TLP will add to output from KCM's existing asset base, improve overall resource recovery and add to Zambia's export earnings, supporting the national target of three-million metric tonnes of copper a year by 2031 and KCM's ambition to reach 300 000 t/y of production.

The company says the approval is consistent with ZCCM-IH's focus on growing production and value from its existing portfolio.

"Nchanga's tailings are among the largest secondary copper resources in Africa. Using the latest technology, this plant turns them into about 70 000 t/y of LME Grade A cathode without mining a single new tonne of ore.

“It is exactly the growth we want across our portfolio. It means more copper from assets that already exist, in support of Zambia's path to three-million tonnes and the Grow Zambia agenda,” says ZCCM-IH CEO Kakenenwa Muyangwa.