Zambia's Mopani Copper Mine Plans To Resume Cobalt Production

Zambia's Mopani copper mine (MCM) plans to resume cobalt production, an executive at state-owned ZCCM-IH said on Tuesday. More than a decade ago, the Mopani mine stopped production because of a collapse in international cobalt prices.

The acceleration in electric car sales has sparked a scramble for nickel, cobalt and lithium, pushing prices for these battery materials to multi-year highs.

Brian Musonda, chief investment officer at ZCCM-IH, Zambia's mining investment arm, said rising cobalt prices were a strong economic reason to restart cobalt processing.

不xt year, The Mopani mine will start processing cobalt concentrate, aiming to produce 4,000-5,000 tonnes a year, Musonda said. In the future, Mopani will increase its production of cobalt, which has historically been a by-product of copper but is too cheap to process.

Zambian copper production fell to 800,696 tons last year from 837,996 tons a year earlier, while cobalt production fell to 247 tons from 316 tons a year earlier, according to March data from the country's statistics Bureau.

Zccm-ih last year agreed to buy glencore's majority stake in Mopani copper for $1.5bn in debt and said it would seek new investors.

Glencore had previously tried to halt Mopani's operations because of low copper prices and disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic, prompting the government to threaten to revoke the company's licence.