The Southern Times reported that Zambia’s deep copper mining projects are likely to suffer the most unless the price of the red metal stays above the USD 7,000 per tonne.

Copper miners fear that unless the price stays above USD 7,000 per tonne they may be forced to review their investment in the copper rich Southern African state.

Overnight copper traded at USD 7,245 per tonne on the London Metal Exchange on a cash basis, providing some respite as has the more bullish recent sentiment for the demand for copper from the US, Europe and China.

Newer mines such as Kansanshi and Lumwana in North West, were likely to absorb the price shocks, as they were low-production cost mines using newer technology.

Deeper older mines like Konkola, Mufulira, Nchanga and Mopani Nkana have production costs in excess of the USD 7,000 per tonne because they are mining copper two kilometers deep.

Despite the volatile copper markets, miners have remained resilient and have since invested close to USD 8 billion in the various old and new projects since the time of privatization of the mines in Zambia in early 2000. This in turn raised the country’s copper out turn from a lowly 250,000 tonnes per annum in the 1970s to over 700,000 tonnes presently.

Zambia forecasts to increase copper capacity to 1.6 million tonnes in three years and improve the country’s rating to fourth world largest producer from the present seventh position globally. All the above attributes arise from the massive investment that the new mine owners have put into the old and new projects.