BALLY REAWAKENS THE SLEEPING GIANT

Luanshya – Friday, 12th, 2024

President Hakainde Hichilema, was yesterday in Luanshya at 28 Shaft, to officiate at the installation of one of the 24-ton submersible pumps. This is to be used for dewatering the flooded 28 Shaft, an exercise which commences by end of April, 2024.

The reopening of 28 Shaft, follows President Hichilema’s bilateral trade engagements, he held with his Chinese counterpart, His Excellency Xi Jingpin, when he visited China in September, 2023.

28 Shaft, now renamed to ‘New Luanshya Mine’, has been closed for over 23 years.

Meanwhile, all efforts by previous governments to have the mine reopened had proved futile.

Below are the detailed reports about the New Luanshya Mine:

▪️$100m allocated to dewatering the mine;

▪️ Duration of dewatering exercise is 24 months (max) starting from April;

▪️ Estimated volume of water is 176 000 000m³;

▪️A total of 15 submersible pumps, of same capacity, will be installed at different points to accelerate the exercise, namely; 14 Shaft, 18 Shaft and 28 Shaft;

▪️The pumps are custom-designed and cost $1.5m (K39m) each;

▪️The pumps are rated 3.15 mega watts each;

▪️Each pump weighs 24 tonnes;

▪️Each pump has maximum capacity of pumping 1000m³ of water per hour;

▪️The New Luanshya Mine is 1200m deep;

▪️The New Luanshya Mine is an already developed mine with existing primary and secondary development sections, tramming haulages, pump chamber, crusher chamber and loading box in place, albeit flooded;

▪️The mine is said to have stope rings readily available for blasting and stockpiles of ore in some sections;

▪️The flooded mine, sits on over a million tonnes of scrap metal as most of the machinery, equipment, substations, rails, and pipe installations in both in shafts and sections were never reclaimed;

▪️ Construction of reservoir dams and drainages stands at 90% completion points;

▪️ Water pump from the mine will be channelled into Kafue river and eventually into Kariba dam;

▪️CLM to inject $500m for the rehabilitation and operationalization of the mine, once dewatering is completed;

▪️3300 direct jobs projected to be created once the mine is fully operational;

▪️ 20 years is the estimated lifespan of the mine;

▪️ Construction of the modern Technical and Vocational Training College, with state of the art learning equipment by Luanshya Copper Mines is almost completed and is set to open this year; and lastly,

▪️ Luanshya Copper Mines to commence construction of the new state-of-the-art Concentrator by end of this year.