By Chris Mfula and Maxwell Akalaare Adombila
Lusaka/Dakar — Two of Zambia’s largest copper smelters and sulphuric acid producers will shut for extended maintenance later this year, two industry sources said, further squeezing copper output and supplies of the chemical used to process copper and cobalt.
The Iran war has disrupted global supplies of the critical acid and other leaching chemicals, prompting mines in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the world’s top cobalt and second-largest copper producer, to cut usage or consider output cuts.
Copper smelters in Zambia, Africa’s second-largest producer of the metal vital for clean energy technologies, generate about 2-million metric tonnes of sulphuric acid a year, mostly as a byproduct used by local mines, the mines ministry says, with excess exported to the DRC.
The country’s own sulphuric acid stocks are so depleted there is effectively no capacity to export, the Zambia head of Canada’s First Quantum Minerals said separately, as miners in the DRC also struggle with tightening chemical supplies.
The mines ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Though copper smelters shut annually for routine maintenance spanning 30 days, Mopani and Chambishi, which is 85% owned by China Nonferrous Metal Mining Group, face longer outages this year, a chemicals trading source said.
Mopani, which has not been maintained for a while, is scheduled to close for three days in June, followed by an extended shutdown of about 40 to 45 days between August and mid-September, a mining executive said.
Mopani and Chambishi officials did not respond to requests for comment.
The sources asked for anonymity because they are not authorised to speak on the matter.
Chambishi is scheduled to shut down for about two months until August, the chemicals trader said, without elaborating on what prompted the planned extended outage.
Zambia tightened controls on sulphuric acid exports this month, requiring traders to secure permits. It said the move was aimed at protecting the local industry.
The measures are fair, but exports are unlikely in the near term, said Anthony Mukutuma, First Quantum’s country director in Zambia.
Global copper supply will tighten this year after years of underinvestment constrained mine output growth. Zambia produced 890,346 tonnes of the red metal last year, below a 1-million-tonne target.
DRC’s copper exports, meanwhile, fell in the first quarter of this year, according to shipping data.
Mopani is operating well below its 225,000 metric tonne finished copper capacity after years of underinvestment left it short of copper concentrate, the mining executive said. The majority owner, UAE’s International Resources Holding, is developing and mining concurrently, forcing intermittent stoppages and further constraining output, said the mining executive.
