The Nchanga mines are a group of

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...

mining operations near the municipal town of

Chingola Chingola is a city in Zambia's Copperbelt Province, the country's copper-mining region, with a population of 216,626 (2010 census). It is the home of Nchanga Copper Mine, a deep-shaft high-grade content copper mining operation, which subsequent ...

Zambia Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most central point. Its neighbours are t ...

Nchanga Open Pit Mine

The Open Pits at Nchanga Mine are situated in a

crescent A crescent shape (, ) is a symbol or emblem used to represent the lunar phase in the first quarter (the "sickle moon"), or by extension a symbol representing the Moon itself. In Hinduism, Lord Shiva is often shown wearing a crescent moon on his ...

shaped structure 11 km long around the municipal town of

. Covering nearly 30 km² it is the second largest open cast mine in the world. The deepest part of the pit is 400 m lower than the surrounding

plateau In geology and physical geography, a plateau (; ; ), also called a high plain or a tableland, is an area of a highland consisting of flat terrain that is raised sharply above the surrounding area on at least one side. Often one or more sides ...

. Open Pit mining at Nchanga started in 1955, in the main Nchanga Open Pit. Subsequently, nine medium sized open pits, called satellite pits, have also been mined at one time or the other. At present, mining is concentrated on the main Nchanga pit, with satellite planned for future extensions, as economics and processing technological developments unfold. Together they are termed generically as the Nchanga Open Pits.

Nchanga Underground Mine

The Nchanga underground mine accounts for approximately 45% of the total

production at Nchanga. Over the past 10 years the annual production has averaged 93,00 tonnes of contained copper. Currently, there are three distinct ore bodies from which mining is taking place, namely, the lower orebody (LOB), Block `A' and Chingola `B'. These contribute 63%, 35% and 8% copper ore production respectively.

Nchanga Process Plants

The Nchanga processing plants consist of two concentrators, East Mill and West Mill and the

tailings In mining, tailings are the materials left over after the process of separating the valuable fraction from the uneconomic fraction (gangue) of an ore. Tailings are different to overburden, which is the waste rock or other material that overli ...

leach plant. The East Mill treats ore from the open pit while the West Mill treats ore from underground. In addition

cobalt Cobalt is a chemical element with the symbol Co and atomic number 27. As with nickel, cobalt is found in the Earth's crust only in a chemically combined form, save for small deposits found in alloys of natural meteoric iron. The free element, p ...

is treated at the West Mill Cobalt Plant. The tailings leach plant produces copper cathodes from concentrator

and reclaimed tailings.

References

{{zambia-stub Buildings and structures in Copperbelt Province Surface mines in Zambia Open-pit mines