By KENNEDY MUPESENI –

KONKOLA Copper Mines (KCM) has reduced the cost of production by 18 per cent while production has increased by seven per cent despite the challenges mining companies are facing.
KCM vice-president for local economic development, David Paterson said to reduce the impact of low copper prices on the international market, the company had worked on the new business strategy which had seen production costs drop by 18 per cent.
“We have developed a new production strategy which has seen production costs dropping by 18 per cent while increasing copper ore production by seven per cent despite the unfavourable business conditions on the international market,” Mr Paterson said.
He was briefing United Nations country coordinator Janet Rogan who toured the mining company’s facilities in Chililabombwe and Chingola on Wednesday.
Mr Paterson said KCM had been working on increasing efficiency by deploying one of the best modern technology equipment which had seen production costs go down.
He said the company wanted to prepare for the future.
“We want to prepare for the future so that when commodity prices start picking, they find us in a much better condition,” Mr Paterson said.
He said since the company took over mining operations in the country, the parent company, Vedanta Resources Plc, had invested to a tune of US$3 billion, a demonstration of the company’s commitment to the future of its mining in the country.
KCM geological services manager Davy Mubita said the sinking of the shaft at Konkola underground mine in Chililabombwe had expanded the lifespan and copper ore production for KCM.
“We recently extended the production capacity of the mine to eight million tonnes of ore after deepening shafts as well as sinking new ones at Konkola underground mine,” Mr Mubita said.