First Quantum greenlights Kansanshi copper expansion project in Zambia

• Kansanshi copper expansion to double mine life

• New nickel project in Zambia also approved

• Zambian govt. committed to reforming mining sector: company

Canadian miner First Quantum Minerals has approved a $1.25 billion project to expand the Kansanshi copper mine in Zambia, the company said May 8.

This follows the Zambian government's commitment to reform the country's mining sector, improve the ease of doing business in the country and enhance the country's investment climate for mining.

The S3 Expansion will comprise a standalone 25 million mt/year processing plant with a new larger mining fleet, which would increase Kansanshi's total throughput to 53 million mt/year. This will extend the life of Kansanshi till 2044 and allow the operation to produce about 250,000 mt/year of copper, the company said.

In parallel with the expansion of the mine and processing facilities, the company said it plans to increase the throughput capacity of the Kansanshi smelter to 1.65 million mt/year of concentrate from the current 1.38 million mt/year. This will enable the smelter to produce over 400,000 mt/year of copper anode.

First production from the S3 Expansion at Kansanshi is expected in 2025, it said.

New nickel project gets go-ahead

First Quantum - the world's seventh-largest copper producer – also said May 8 that it had approved the development of a new nickel project, also in Zambia.

Located 12 kilometers from the company's Sentinel copper mine, the Enterprise nickel project would consist of a single, main open pit and one extension to the southwest and would use the existing 4 million mt/year nickel circuit that was previously built as part of the original Sentinel processing complex, the company said.

The development timeline for the $100 million Enterprise project is expected to be approximately 12 months. At full production, the project is expected to produce an average of 30,000 mt/year of nickel in high-grade concentrate. First nickel production of between 5,000 to 10,000 mt is expected in 2023, the company said.

First Quantum said that the S3 Expansion and the Enterprise nickel project are a key part of the company's brownfield growth strategy. The S3 Expansion would expand production and extend Kansanshi's mine life for another two decades, while the low-cost, high-grade Enterprise nickel project is well placed to supply the rapidly growing electric vehicle battery sector.

First Quantum and the Zambian government have also resolved "all points of contention that have been stumbling blocks" to progress on the S3 Expansion and Enterprise nickel project. This includes reaching agreement in respect to the outstanding value-added tax receivable sum and an approach for repayment based on offsets against future mining taxes and royalties, the company said.

"The approval of these two projects is an important milestone for the company's path towards responsible production growth of the metals needed for the global green energy transition," said Tristan Pascall, CEO of First Quantum.