THE MINERAL INDUSTRY OF ZAMBIA 
 
Table 5.—Zambia: RCM copper production and ore reserves 
1073 
Mine 
Ore 
mined and treated 
 
 
Ore reserves 
 
 
Gross 
 
(thu~nd 
 
metric 
tons) 
Copper 
(percent) 
coi (metric 
tons) 
Gross 
(thou~nd 
metric 
tons) 
Copper 
(percent) 
. 
 
Cobalt (percent) 
MufuliraUG                 
LuanshyaUG                
BalubalJG                  
6,268 
4003 
1645 
2.32 
137 
200 
145,418 
54841 
32900 
117,000 
58000 
70000 
3.11 
250 
239 
016 
ChambishiUG'               
Chibuluma UG               
KalengwaOP'                
 
Totals and averages        
2,010 
457 
154 
2.49 
3.13 
4.74 
50,049 
14,304 
7,300 
35,000 
6,800 Nil 
2.85 
4.68 
~ 
.18 
~ 
 
14,537 
2.097 
304,812 
286,800 
2,816 
.043 
 OP Open pit. UG Underground. 
 1Mining in both the Kalengwa and Chambiahi open pits was halted in the rainy
season of late 1978. Stockpiled ore was used to supplement underground ore
feeding at Chambishi and as total feed at Kalengwa. 
 
RCM production of finished copper decreased as concentrate stocks were depleted,
and as the demand for cathode copper supplanted that for wirebar, some reverberatéry
furnaces became available for toll smelting. Wirebar production ceased in
January 1979, and by June all RCM's smelting requirements were being met
by the Mufulira electric furnace and Luanshya's No. 1 reverberatory furnace.
One tankhouse line at the Ndola Copper Refinery was shut down in March 1979
and the other was used for toll refining of NCCM copper, while all RCM'S
cathode copper was produced at the Mufulira refmery. A 1,000ton dry concentrate
storage bin and two electrostatic precipitators were installed at the Mufulira
electric furnace to recover cupriferous dust from the exhaust gases. The
Government Mining Engineer and the Chief Inspector of Mines granted permission
for lower cost caving methods to be resumed in certain parts of the Mufulira
mine, and large-diameter blast hole stoping was also introduced in some areas.
The installation of 8.5-cubic-meter Fagergren flotation cells in place of
smaller units improved operating results at both Mufulira and Luanshya. An
evaporative cooling system was installed to replace the waste heat boilers
at Luanshya's No. 1 reverberatory furnace in April 1979. Extensions to Luanshya's
Buluba concentrator increased its ore handling capacity to cope with increased
ore production, as more of Baluba's underground development was completed.

 Equipping of the 1,000-meter Chibuluma West shaft was completed, and the
winders and headframe were erected by yearend 1979. Underground development
of the Chambishi orebody was completed to the 500-meter level of its 1,000-meter
shaft in order to replace the shortfall in ore production caused by the shutdown
of open pit 
mining in late 1978. Mining at the Kaleñgwa open pit was also
halted
late in 1978, but the small Kalengwa concentrator continued to treat ore
stockpiled during previous years. Extensions to the relatively new roast-leach-electrowin
plant at the Chambishi mine were completed early in 1979 and provided facilities
for the production of 2,400 tons of degassed electrolytic cobalt metal per
year as well as 21,000 tons of leach cathode copper. Feedstock consisted
of about 80,000 tons of high-cobalt concentrate from the Chibuluma concentrator,
containing 7.15% copper and 2.28% cobalt, and nearly 40,000 tons of similar
concentrate from the Baluba concentrator containing 6.88% copper and 3.90%
cobalt. 
During the 1978 calendar year, NCCM's ore included nearly 4.9 million tons
of Rokana ore containing almost 75,000 tons of copper and 5,355 tons of cobalt.
Table .6 shows details of production for 1978 and ore reserves as published
in the annual report for the year ended March 31, 1979. The .Rokana cobalt
plant ceased to produce metal from RCM's cobalt hydroxide in January 1979
when Chambishi's new cobalt plant was commissioned. Substantial quantities
of gypsum resulting from the use of lime to neutralize spent acid was discarded,
but 500 to 1,000 tons per month was sold and railed to Chilanga Cement Ltd.
and nearly 1,500 tons per month was used as flux for smelting the high-grade,
high-sulfur concentrates produced in early 1978. This practice was halted
when the concentrate grade decreased in 1979. Development work was continued
in connection with shaft deepening at the Mindola, the Central, and the South
Orebody sections of the l~kana mine, with the objective of increased production
of cobaltiferous ore in 1980.