Thursday, March 28, 2024

Low copper prices wont affect Kansanshi Mining production

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Kansanshi Mining PLC Public Relations Manager Godfrey Msiska says the low copper prices on the international market will not affect the company’s projected copper production of 181 000 tonnes for the year 2008.

Mr. Msiska said the mining company is mitigating the negative impact of the low copper prices by optimizing the cost of production and changing the attitude towards resource management.

He was speaking at a stakeholders meeting in Solwezi yesterday.

Mr. Msiska added that this trend will not lead the company into laying off employees which he described as the last resort.

Meanwhile Kansanshi Mining Environmental Manager Richard Zyambo expressed disappointment with the jatropha outgrower scheme in Solwezi district.

Mr. Zyambo said the small scale farmers who benefited from the project in last years farming season have not performed to the company’s expectations.

He appealed to the farmers to fully support the project as Kansanshi alone can not do it adding that for the 2008- 2009 farming season only commercial farmers and people with interest will benefit from the seed and fertilizer.

ENDS/EC/MM/PK/ZANIS.

28 COMMENTS

  1. Imwe b Msiska mundamanye economics imwe. when copper prices are low, you are supposed to send signals to the markets that production would be cut. This would stimulate high copper prices because prices are determined by supply in this case ( or demand)

  2. no. 2 it’s not that simple. there are many factors to consider including sustaining the company and maintaining employment until prices pick up again

  3. if the company is well run, they can mantain and still survive. the issue of low copper prices in the mining business is expected because it is not always prices go up. we should expect things to change at any time in every business.

  4. Ubufi bashetani aba. The cost of production still remains the same. You chaps should learn from OPEC. But then again copper is not oil is it?

    Ba Msiska the best you can do is ask people to pray. Tafili gudu ifintu and it is no joke.

  5. #2
    The fall in copper price has been triggered by a Low Demand, if you follow suit by cutting supply the price wont go up because very few want to buy it anyway.However if you cut productin further the operating costs will be too high to sustain that little production hence you might as well close.Economies of Scale at play i.e it maybe profitable to produce 10 tonnes of copper, but might be a loss to just produce 1 tone using the same equipment. so to meet the production costs at low prices the Mine has to produce more from the same labour and resources.

  6. We heard 300 employees are yet to go from Kan meaning alot more will be unemployed guess people will start seeing when we say there is no development they must agree because with many industries these people would go to different industries its worrying

  7. #8 Engines uliwabufi. You are contradicting yourself. The cost of production is the same that is the bottom line. This is reason Msiska was trying to go round the bend to get to the point. What it means is the company will start losing eventually. As long as the prices keep falling ninshi kaya batata.

  8. Big up Kansanshi, these are the ivestors we need. For your own information, the current copper price is the normal price and mining companies should not cry foul when they were making abnormal profits before.No wonder we needed SATA

  9. #8 Engines: What happens to the price when the commodities stocks, in the case, copper runs out at the London Metal Exchange? East economies are not growing at zero, therefore they will still wanna by Msiska’s copper. With low stocks at the LME, the price will swing upwards, ofcourse.

  10. #10 Mpatamato

    Cost of production is never same. If you hire minestone to come and and do your driveway the will run at a loss because the cost of fuel for there bulldozzer will be higher that what you would pay them. if the same mine stone is asked to do 200Km of the great east road they will make a profit. ask the ladies at Chisokone they will tell you if they sell 2 tomatoes a day its a loss because its less than transport but if they sell 10 it becomes profitable.if you see what iam sayng

  11. #13 CHIGONAM’PHAKO

    The east buys copper for reserves and to manufacture goods and sell the finished goods to Europe and America. America also keeps copper reserves. Now America and Europe has run out of Money to buy the finished goods from the east, so the east reduces price and scales down production so that america and europe can afford in turn the demand of the Raw material(copper) also reduces and the price falls. so the copper being bought is mainly for local consumption for the east. LME is a speculative market if copper runs out and very few want it price will not rise significantly mind you these countries have reserves so there not desperate at the moment.

  12. too bad for you guys.the worse thing is that you cant even do a small farming after losing a kajob coz the land is polluted.we expect more demos due to pychatric and depressions.we forgive you PF copperbelt imbatled pipo.we’ll pray for you.

  13. You buggers living in England and US should now be thinking about coming back home to contribute to the development of this country. Not just giving theories on internet…come home – because when the recession over there starts to bite we might not want you back!!!!

  14. GRZ still wait kansanshi to give dividend to zccm-ih !
    For the last two year, the part of benefit for zccm-ih from kansanshi is about 300 MUS$ but zccm-ih receive no money from kansanshi mining !
    FQM is not a friend of zambia for the moment !

  15. My foot….even these so-called burgers in the diaspora don’t seem to understand what they’re talking about.There’s no need of genuis to understand the phenomenon on the play here.
    The bottom line is everbody is now being affected by this credit crunch perpetuated be the US.The effects are being rippled to all the four corners of the world,although some people,including our respectable finance minister,thought that there economies were safe from this.The US has cut down consumption and China,whose largest importer is the US,has no option but to cut down on prodution,thereby leading to a slump on the demand for copper.I guess this is the reason why copper prices have plummented.

  16. This is not a simple problem.As many economics analysts have pointed out,the whole world may be heading towards a reccession and that’s very awful news for everyone.It means alot of companies will just close up and alot of folks will loose jobs.It’s even much bitter for this years graduates,because you can’t hope to get a job when people who’re in the system are being flushed out.And there’re no safe havens….because the US and Europe will be the worst hit…and even if you got some savings,you might just see their value dwindle in front of your eyes. Just be prepared for the worst,folks.Just as Malcom X said;”the future is for those that are ready for it”.

  17. Gentlemen this financial meltdown around the world has not yet hit us, what you are seeing is simply a storm on the horizon because there is usually a time lag between first world and third world economies.What will happen is when the crunch is at the peak in USA thats when it will show symptoms here then when the USA recovers ours will be at peak meaning that when the crunch hits us it will take much longer to recover after the first world as recoverd. Brace it mother Zambia “we all going to die so dont waste your time screeming”

  18. #21 Engines Your analysis is true and there’s no denying the hard times ahead of us. Only if you could put it a bit more considerate. We have enough prophets of doom on the blog.

  19. My foot……it only takes a slump in the commodity prices to knock our economy down.The oil prices have already plummented beyond what most analysts expected and countries,whose economic backbone is oil,are already crying.The same will happen with the copper prices.Mind you,the boom in the commodity prices was fueled by China,India and Brazil and as these countries’economies begin slowing down,the prospects are not so juice for commodity exporters,Zambia inclusive.
    This is when folks begin to realise the inportance of diversifing the economy.we had the govt even claiming that the economic gains were due to its good policies…luck is now fading out!Tighten ya belts,cats!

  20. HUh! all this ‘supply and demand’ talk is making my head ache, this economy of ours needs to depend on other sources of finance. Too much dependency on copper may just worsen our already sick economy, for goodness sake we have so vast an informal sector, lets change things and make industries that can process what we grow,am certain a deliberate move in this direction will help, but as for the mining chap and his comments;i don’t agree with you, the price change may not immediately affect us but we will feel it tomorrow.

  21. ” Low copper prices wont affect Kansanshi Mining production ”

    I’ll bet. They’re still around $4000 per tonne, which 6 years ago, was unheard of.

  22. Folks,it’s being said that the price of copper is currently somewhere around $4000 per tone while the cost of production is around $5000 per tone.As all of us can see,the mining companies will have to take measures such as laying off some workers.They may even want to deal directly with the manufacturers of the equipments and components used in their businesses and this means that the local suppliers and contractors may lose business,since we are not a manufacturing company.
    Just tighten ya belts,cats!

  23. YOu guys don`t have a clue what is going on we are still making copper and carrying zambia and all other fqm mines on our backs, why don`t you guys rather start thinking of ways to make the impact a little softer for everyone by talking some sense into the people and giving them hope to carry on rather than talking as if this is the end, c`mon guys

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