Lusaka: Vedanta's Konkola Copper Mines has started a 60-day shutdown of its Nchanga smelter in Zambia for maintenance and repairs, it said on Tuesday.
* KCM said the repairs and maintenance are aimed at enhancing operational efficiency, reliability and long-term production performance.
* The company produced 80,215 metric tons of copper in 2025, according to the mines ministry.
* The scheduled shutdown is part of the company's broader modernisation strategy, designed to lift its output towards a target of 300,000 tons per year by 2030.
* That fits within Zambia's ambition to raise national output to 3 million tons by 2031 from 890,346 tons in 2025.
* The Nchanga smelter shutdown means three of Zambia's major processing plants will undergo extended maintenance between June and mid-September, with the Mopani and Chambishi plants also undergoing shutdowns.
* That could tighten copper and sulphuric acid production at a time when the Iran war has also disrupted global supplies of sulphuric acid, critical in the processing of copper and cobalt.
* KCM said it will continue supplying acid to its Nchanga tailings leach plant, which recovers copper from stockpiled waste, from external sources and its own 500 ton-per-day acid plant at Nchanga.
