Province Katanga Province Opened 2009 | Products Copper, cobalt | |
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Country Democratic Republic of the Congo Address Immeuble Inga 1, 2 & 3, Ave Lt. Colonel Lukusa, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo | ||
The Tenke Fungurume Mine holds one of the world's largest known copper and cobalt resources. The deposits are located within two concessions totaling over 1,500 square kilometres (580 sq mi) within Katanga Province, in the northern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
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Tenke Fungurume is the largest copper mine in the DRC.
OwnershipEdit
The mining project is a partnership led by Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold, the Lundin Mining Corporation, and the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo, through Gécamines.
As of September 2009 Freeport-McMoRan operated the mine and held 58.8%, Lundin held 24.8% and Gécamines (La Générale des Carrières et des Mines) held the remaining 17.5%. In May 2016, Freeport-McMoRan sold their stake to China Molybdenum (CMOC) for 2.65 Billion USD, as the area holds cobalt for lithium-ion batteries in addition to copper. The contract had yet to be reviewed by the government under a "revisitation" process started earlier that year.
The first phase at the mine cost US$1.8bn to build.
OperationsEdit
The first copper cathode was produced in March 2009, and the plant was working at planned capacity by September 2009. In the third quarter of 2009 the cobalt plant and the sulphuric acid plant were commissioned. It is expected that the operation will produce 250,000,000 pounds (110,000,000 kg) of copper metal and 18,000,000 pounds (8,200,000 kg) of cobalt annually.