Uganda’s Kilembe mine to resume copper production after three decades

KAMPALA (Scrap Monster): The East African nation of Uganda is to resume copper production from its Kilembe Mine after a halt of more than a decade. The copper mining operations there had been suspended since 1978. According to Chinese Tibet Hima Industry Co, test runs of equipment have already begun and production is expected to resume within two weeks.

According to the company, the ores which are expected to be over 1% pure will be purified for smelting. The cobalt from the mine is expected to be of purity between 1.37% and 1.4% will be fed to Kasese Cobalt Company Ltd. The mine has six deposits with a daily capacity of over 3,000 tons per day.

As per figures released by the Uganda Mining Ministry, the output from the Kilembe mine had peaked at 1 million tons per year in 1970.

The revival of mining operations comes at a time when copper prices at trading at six-year lows. The copper prices on London Metal Exchange (LME) have dropped by nearly 18% since the start of this year alone.

Meantime, the company plans to step up power generation at the mine by upgrading the hydro power plant, subject to approval by the state-run Electricity Regulatory Authority. It also has plans to construct a smelter at Kasese to process the ore and produce 99.9% pure copper for export. The mine will be further revived in stages, the company added. When fully operational, the mine will employ 4,000 full-time workers.

Kilembe Mines is Uganda's largest copper mine, with estimated deposits of copper in excess of 4.5 million tons to 6 million tons and an undetermined amount of cobalt ore. The Kilembe copper mines –once biggest contributor to the country’s GDP- was abandoned in early 1980s following the political turmoil in Congo and sharp fall in copper prices.