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Energy News Network Industry news Mining & Minerals Konkola Deep drives toward 300,000 tonnes on CopperTech’s $1.5bn commitment
Mining & Minerals

Konkola Deep drives toward 300,000 tonnes on CopperTech’s $1.5bn commitment

7th September, 2026

Konkola Copper Mines is working toward 300,000 tonnes of integrated copper production by 2031, from around 140,000 tonnes this financial year. CopperTech Metals, the US-domiciled vehicle Vedanta created for the asset in November 2025, has announced $1.5 billion of investment. The constraint underneath all of it is electricity.

Konkola Deep pumps roughly 450,000 cubic metres of water out of the ground every day to keep its workings open, a load that runs continuously and grows with every metre the mine goes down. The shaft at Chililabombwe reaches 1,505 metres, among the deepest in Zambia, and sits on ore grading up to 3.3% copper against a KCM average of 2.9%, which is high by any global comparison.

The reserve underneath supports the arithmetic. Konkola Deep holds more than 291 million tonnes of ore and a projected mine life of at least 50 years, and KCM has engaged Mancala to carry out the underground excavations that open it up. The company has also upgraded its high-speed underground rail system, following its first successful raise boring in fifteen years.

Production is planned at around 140,000 tonnes of integrated copper in the 2026 financial year, rising to 300,000 tonnes by 2031, with a longer-term ambition of 500,000 tonnes a year. Zambia produced approximately 890,000 tonnes in 2025 and has set a national target of 3 million tonnes.

The money behind it has arrived in stages. Vedanta committed $1 billion over five years when it resumed management of KCM in August 2024, and completed an initial $124 million ahead of the July 2025 deadline, taking total investment past $400 million. In November 2025 Vedanta spun the asset into CopperTech Metals, a US-domiciled company, and announced a further $1.5 billion for expansion and modernisation on top of roughly $3 billion of historic investment. ZCCM Investments Holdings retains 20.6% of Konkola.

Every tonne of that expansion arrives with an electricity requirement attached, and the dewatering is only the start of it. KCM appears in Energy Regulation Board records with a 100MW supply agreement with Kanona Power Company, one of a set of arrangements between miners and private suppliers that Zambia’s open-access rules have made possible. The company has separately set out plans for a 300MW coal-fired station in two phases at a cost of around $317 million.

Copperbelt Energy Corporation put the wider figure at close to 10GW of new generation and nearly $12 billion of energy investment by 2030 to support the mining expansion Zambia is planning, a company estimate rather than a government requirement.

Phesto Musonda, chairman of ZCCM Investments Holdings, has said proceeds from the CopperTech listing could bring Konkola Deep’s development timeline forward by around three years.

Photo Credit: Solwezi Today & wbho.co.za

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