In order to regain access to the mine, Vedanta must now abide by the court’s decision and release $250 million to pay off obligations that KCM has with suppliers and contractors.
Written by William Clowes
Following the approval of a proposal by a court to satisfy debts owed to the mine’s creditors, Vedanta Resources Ltd. is able to regain control of the Konkola copper project in Zambia.
Paul Kabuswe, Zambia’s minister of mines, announced on Facebook that a court in the country’s capital, Lusaka, accepted an arrangement on Friday that was backed by the creditors of Konkola Copper Mines Plc. Since 2019, when KCM was placed into provisional liquidation after the previous government accused its owner of lying about growth plans and paying too little tax, billionaire Anil Agarwal’s Vedanta has been attempting to reclaim the significant copper asset.
Vedanta must now abide by the court’s decision and release $250 million to pay off debts owed by KCM to suppliers and contractors in order to regain access to the mine. This week, Vedanta informed Bloomberg that it is prepared to begin making the payments. In order to finish growth initiatives, Agarwal’s company has also promised to invest $1 billion over the course of five years.
The output of copper, which is essential to the energy transition and whose price surged to a record last month, plummeted to fewer than 40,000 tonnes in 2023, despite Konkola’s yearly production capacity exceeding 300,000 tonnes.
The main operation, Konkola Deep, is situated about a mile below the surface. This mine, which is among the wettest in the world, needs to pump 140 Olympic-sized swimming pools to the surface every day in order to be operational.