Lusaka - Glencore plans to invest over $1.1 billion in Zambia to sink three shafts with new technology that will extend mine life by over 25 years, its local unit said on Wednesday.
“We firmly believe that we shall be able to overcome the challenges that we face today as a company and become profitable and operationally-efficient,” Mopani Copper Mines (MCM) said in a statement.
Read: Glencore suffers amid commodity rout
The investments would be made between now and 2018 and it was expected that Mopani would be turned into a world-class mining operation by 2023, it said.
Glencore was fully committed to Mopani and had invested over $3 billion in upgrading infrastructure and in major capital expansion programmes since 2000, Mopani said.
An electricity shortage in Africa's second-biggest copper producer and weaker prices have put pressure on Zambia's mining industry, threatening output, jobs and economic growth.
REUTERS