By MILDRED KATONGO –
NON-FERROUS Company Africa Mining (NFCA) in Chambishi will incur a loss of US$ 15, 000 if copper prices on the global market continue to fall.
NFCA assistant chief executive officer John Mtonga said the continued fall in copper prices would impact negatively on the operations of the mine.
Mr Mtonga said more than half of Zambia’s copper production was currently in a loss-making cycle following a consistent decline in the international copper prices.
He said most of Zambia’s mines including NFCA were operating at a high-cost, significantly higher than other copper-mining provinces in the world.
He said the downward trend in copper prices showed that Zambia’s mining industries were very sensitive and could easily become defunct as the current drop would cause mines to scale back on production.
“NFCA will definitely incur a huge loss due to the continued fall in copper prices. For a mining firm to make profits in its operations, copper prices should be selling above U$ 7000,” he said.
Mr Mtonga said despite the copper prices going down, the operating costs at the mining firm still remained high.
He said the company that transformed a once closed and dormant Chambishi Mine into a vibrant and focused firm produced more than 28,000 tonnes of fine copper last year due to fair copper prices at the time.
