Vedanta's Zambian unit shuts copper smelter for maintenance

Lusaka: Vedanta's Konkola Copper Mines has started a 60-day shutdown of its Nchanga smelter in Zambia for maintenance and repairs, it said on Tuesday.

* KCM said the repairs and maintenance are aimed at enhancing operational ‌efficiency, ⁠reliability and ⁠long-term production performance.

* The company produced 80,215 metric tons ​of copper in 2025, according to the mines ministry.


* ​The scheduled shutdown is part of the company's broader modernisation strategy, designed to lift its ​output towards a target of 300,000 ⁠tons per ‌year by 2030.

* That fits ​within ​Zambia's ambition to raise national output ⁠to 3 million tons by 2031 from ​890,346 tons in 2025.

* The Nchanga ​smelter shutdown means three of Zambia's major processing plants will undergo extended maintenance between June and mid-September, with the Mopani and Chambishi plants also undergoing shutdowns.

* That could tighten ‌copper and sulphuric acid production at a time when the Iran war has ​also ​disrupted global supplies ⁠of sulphuric acid, critical in the processing of copper and cobalt.

* KCM said it will continue ​supplying acid to its Nchanga tailings leach plant, which recovers copper from stockpiled waste, from external sources and its own 500 ton-per-day acid plant at Nchanga.