Mopani Copper Mines

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Mopani Copper Mines
legal form Corporation
founding 2000 (1933 and 1932)
Seat Kitwe , ZambiaZambiaZambia 
management Tim Henderson
Number of employees 16,000
Branch Mining

Mopani Copper Mines is a public company based in Zambia . It is owned 16.9 percent in 2006 by First Quantum Minerals Ltd Plc. ( Vancouver / Canada ), 73 percent from Glencore International AG (Baar / Switzerland) and 10 percent from Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines Investment Holdings . Mopani Copper Mines is listed on the Lusaka Stock Exchange, i.e. not traded. Its headquarters are at Kitwe , Central Avenue.

Mopani Copper Mines operates civil engineering in Mufulira with 27 million t reserves at around 3.04% copper content and Nkana with 75 million t reserves at around 2.3% copper and 0.14% cobalt content . Both mines are jointly operated by Mopani Copper Mines and First Quantum Minerals. Mufulira has been exploited since 1933 and Nkana since 1932.

Mopani Copper Mines was privatized in April 2000 for US $ 43 million, but on condition that it invested US $ 159 million. By 2006, US $ 506 had been invested to triple production. Originally, Glencore 46, First Quantum 44 and ZCCM-IH held 10 percent. In 2006, a copper smelter was built with a capacity of 410,000 t of copper concentrate per year, this was expanded to 650,000 t with new technology and is expected to soon reach 850,000 t. Copper concentrate contains around 60 percent copper and must be refined further. In 2008, 270,000 t of copper are to be extracted per year.

Mopani Copper Mines is the largest employer in the Copperbelt , employing 16,000 people. It is considered to be the most profitable mining operation in the region, but it is also held responsible for severe environmental damage (massive exceedance of the WHO values ​​for sulfur in the air and, as a result, several deaths). As of the current status (June 2019), the situation has hardly improved, so that the limit values ​​are still massively exceeded in some cases. In 2020, the Zambian Supreme Court ruled that Glencore had to compensate the family of a victim of emissions.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Glencore-Xstrata and the asthma deaths of Mufulira in the TV magazine Rundschau of Swiss television (accessed on March 12, 2014)
  2. ↑ Res Gehriger: Samples in Zambia - Sulfur gases from Glencore's copper works endanger local residents. In: srf.ch . June 12, 2019, accessed June 13, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Res Gehriger: Deadly sulfur dioxide emissions - raw materials company Glencore has to compensate victims. In: srf.ch. August 25, 2020, accessed August 25, 2020 .

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