Kansanshi Mine Targets 130,000 Ounces of Gold
2020 copper production expected to reach 235,000 tonnes
KANSANSHI Mine is this year projected to produce 130,000 ounces of gold and 235,000 tonnes of copper.
The mine has vein deposits, with economic copper and gold mineralisation occurring in three ore-types: primary sulphide, mixed supergene and oxide.
Gold is the most ductile metal and a good conductor of heat and electricity.
It is used in computers, telecommunication, digital technology and space exploration. According to information posted by First Quantum Minerals on its website,
the company that started production at Kansanshi in 2005 has installed several expansions, and the operation is now capable of producing 340,000 tonnes of copper and more than 120,000 ounces of gold per year.
“Production in 2020 is expected to be 220,000 to 235,000 tonnes of copper and 120,000 to 130,000 ounces of gold,” First Quantum Minerals stated.
Kansanshi Copper Smelter, commissioned in the first half of 2015, has enabled First Quantum Minerals to optimise the value of the copper produced in Zambia and
created a further 700 specialist jobs.
The smelter has a nominal capacity of 1.2 million tonnes per annum of concentrate to produce more than 300,000 tonnes of blister copper annually.
“The smelter efficiently traps 100 percent of sulphur dioxide by-product and converts it into sulphuric acid. This recycling produces more than one million tonnes per annum of sulphuric acid, reducing reliance on imported acid for use in the treatment of oxide copper ores. Acid produced by the smelter is neutralised in the leaching circuit,” First Quantum Minerals stated.
Kansanshi employs more than 13,000 people, primarily Zambians, and utilises stateof- the-art technology to extract copper and gold from three different ore types, with worldclass efficiency.
Mining is carried out in two open pits, main and Northwest, using conventional open-pit methods employing hydraulic excavators and a fleet of haul trucks with electric trolley assisting on the waste haul.
Ore treatment is flexible to allow for variation in ore type either through an oxide leach circuit, a sulphide flotation circuit or a transitional ore “mixed float” circuit.
Equally, oxide ore is treated via crushing, milling, flotation, leaching process to produce a sulphidic and gold bearing flotation concentrate as well as electro-won cathode copper.
Gold, which has been declared as a strategic mineral by Government, is recovered from all ore types by six gravity concentrators.
Gemini tables treat the gravity concentrates andproduce a high-grade concentrate for direct smelting to gold bullion.Currently, Kansanshi is the only mine in Zambia
producing gold.
source: Zambia Daily mail
