Bloomberg reported that First Quantum Minerals Ltd Zambia’s biggest copper producer wants the government to waive a 10% levy on nickel-concentrate exports that the company said threatens its newest mine.

 

Mr Tristan Pascall an assistant general manager at the company said that if the duty remains, the economics of the Enterprise project, located in the northwest of the country, are borderline.

 

He said that “To take nickel concentrate out of the country under the current export levy arrangements pretty much kills this project.”

 

Zambia, Africa’s biggest copper producer, introduced a 10% levy on the export of ore and concentrates in November 2011 as it sought to increase local value addition to mineral products. The government waived the levy for the export of manganese ore and concentrate in February last year.

 

The Enterprise operation, which will be the only nickel producer in the country after Albidon Ltd. mothballed its Munali mine in December, will produce 38,000 metric tons of the stainless steel raw materials annually in its first phase, the company said on December 12. Phase two could reach 60,000 tons yearly. There are no nickel smelters in Zambia and the scale of the mine First Quantum is building doesn’t justify constructing one, according to John Gladston, resource optimization manager for the Trident project, which incorporates the Sentinel and Enterprise mines.

 

Together with a 38% increase to the initial production rate First Quantum had planned at Sentinel, Enterprise will cost USD 275 million.