Chinese mining company Sinomine Resources Group has announced plans to invest a total of $789 million in two major mining and rare metal recycling projects in Africa.
The company will allocate $563 million to the Kitumba Copper Mine in Zambia, where it will develop a mining, beneficiation, and copper smelting facility. The project will include an annual raw ore processing capacity of 3.5 million tons, with plans to produce copper sulfide and copper oxide concentrates. The smelter will have an annual output of 60,000 tons of cathode copper and 110,000 tons of sulfuric acid. With construction set to take one and a half years, production is expected to begin by the end of 2026. Based on recent market trends, Sinomine anticipates annual profits of $155 million once the project reaches full capacity, with an investment payback period of around 5.1 years.
The Kitumba Copper Mine is located in Zambia’s Mumbwa district in the Central Province. Earlier this year, Sinomine acquired a 65% stake in the company developing the mine, investing $58.5 million.
Additionally, Sinomine plans to invest $223 million in a rare metals recovery facility at its Tsumeb smelter in Namibia. The new plant will process 200,000 tons of industrial waste annually, extracting rare metals like germanium, gallium, and zinc from smelter tailings. The project is expected to generate $53.5 million in annual profits once it reaches full capacity, with a payback period of about 5.7 years. This facility will serve as a multi-metal recycling center for Sinomine, helping to grow its rare metals business in South-Central Africa.
Sinomine, a private Chinese mining company, has a primary focus on lithium resource development. While its lithium battery materials business generated nearly 66% of the company’s revenue in the first half of the year, the revenue from this segment declined by 41% due to falling lithium salt prices over the past two years.
As of 2:20 p.m. in Shenzhen, Sinomine’s shares (SHE: 002738) were trading at CNY36.58 ($5.01), down 0.3% after an earlier gain of 1.3%.