Zambia’s Nchanga Copper Smelter Restarts After 106-Day Shutdown
Zambia · Mining
Key Facts
- The country — Zambia is a landlocked southern African country of roughly 21 million people. Copper is its main export and the single biggest source of the foreign currency it earns.
- The plant — The Nchanga smelter sits at Chingola in the Copperbelt, near the Congolese border, and can produce up to 311,000 tonnes of copper a year. Konkola Copper Mines runs it.
- Why it stopped — Konkola Copper Mines took the smelter offline on 29 May 2026 for a planned 60-day overhaul, its first major refurbishment in eight years. Inspections then found more critical work.
- What happened — The smelter has cast its first anode, the slab of nearly pure metal a smelter pours before refining, after 106 days idle. The company confirmed the restart on Monday 21 September 2026.
- Who owns it — India’s Vedanta group holds 79.4 percent of Konkola Copper Mines; ZCCM-IH, a state-controlled holding company, owns 20.6 percent. The overhaul cost about US$40 million.
- What it means for you — A working smelter supports Zambia’s copper exports and the earnings behind them. For investors, it is the clearest sign yet that Vedanta is spending on a troubled mine.
- Still open — The company has not said when output will reach capacity. A US$498 million contract with China’s NERIN, for a plant recovering metal from old mine waste, takes effect only once conditions are met.
One of Zambia’s largest smelters is casting metal again after a US$40 million overhaul. Its owner, India’s Vedanta, calls it proof that it is rebuilding a troubled mine.
The Nchanga smelter restart has put one of Zambia’s largest metal plants back to work after a 106-day shutdown. Konkola Copper Mines, the Zambian unit of India’s Vedanta group, has cast its first anode after a US$40 million overhaul.
An anode is the slab of nearly pure metal a smelter pours before final refining. The trade publication Shanghai Metals Market reported the milestone on 17 September 2026.
Konkola Copper Mines, known as KCM, confirmed the restart in a statement on Monday 21 September 2026, according to Reuters. The plant sits at Chingola, in Zambia’s Copperbelt province near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo.
A 60-day job that took 106 days
KCM announced on 29 May 2026 that it was taking the smelter offline for a planned 60-day maintenance programme. At the time it expected the plant to return in August.
It took 46 days longer. The shutdown ran to 106 days “after detailed inspections identified additional critical work,” KCM said in its statement, as reported by Reuters.
The company says crews repaired the flash smelting furnace, the slag-cleaning furnace and the waste-heat recovery boiler. They also worked on the electrostatic precipitators, which filter dust from furnace gases. Other work covered the anode casting wheel, the acid plant and the oxygen plant.
More than 1,500 workers, including KCM staff and contractors, took part without a major injury, the company said. It was the first major refurbishment of the plant in eight years.
What the smelter does
The Nchanga smelter was built by Vedanta for about US$350 million and commissioned in 2010. It can produce up to 311,000 tonnes of copper a year, according to Reuters and the price agency Fastmarkets.
That figure is capacity for copper anode, the smelted metal, not the tonnage of ore concentrate fed into the furnaces. KCM’s own mines produced far less: 80,215 tonnes of copper in 2025, according to Zambia’s mines ministry.
The smelter also makes sulphuric acid, which KCM’s leach plants use to dissolve metal from ore and waste. During the shutdown the company kept its tailings leach plant running on bought-in acid and a smaller acid unit.
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Who said what
Satish Kumar, KCM’s deputy chief executive, framed the Nchanga smelter restart as a statement of intent by the owner. “This is more than the restart of a smelter,” he said in the company statement.
“It is visible evidence of Vedanta’s commitment to rebuilding KCM and securing the long-term future of its operations,” Kumar added.
Yoram Kapai, KCM’s smelter and refinery director, credited careful planning and the collective effort of the workforce. “Our immediate priority is to stabilise operations and sustain safe, reliable and efficient performance,” he said.
Ernest Lesa, who chairs the Nchanga branch of the Mineworkers Union of Zambia, praised managers and workers. He urged the company to keep the safety standards set during the shutdown.
An owner rebuilding after a long dispute
Vedanta is a London-registered mining group controlled by Indian billionaire Anil Agarwal. It holds 79.4% of KCM through its subsidiary CopperTech Metals. The other 20.6% belongs to ZCCM Investments Holdings, known as ZCCM-IH.
ZCCM-IH is the holding company through which Zambia’s government keeps stakes in the mines. The government owns 87.6% of it, according to the industry news site NS Energy.
In 2019 Zambia put KCM into provisional liquidation, handing control to a court-appointed liquidator. That started years of legal battles with Vedanta. Vedanta regained control in 2024 after paying about US$246 million to KCM’s creditors under a court-approved plan, Bloomberg reported.
The trade site Mining Technology reported that CopperTech Metals postponed a planned New York share listing in June, citing volatile markets. That listing was meant to help fund the expansion.
The bigger plan
The overhaul is part of a modernisation drive to lift KCM’s output toward 300,000 tonnes a year by 2030, the company said. That would be almost four times its 2025 production.
Zambia, Africa’s second-largest copper producer after the Democratic Republic of Congo, mined 890,346 tonnes in 2025. The government wants 3 million tonnes a year by 2031, Reuters reported.
In the same week, KCM said it had signed a US$498 million contract with China NERIN Engineering, a Shanghai-listed engineering firm. NERIN will build a plant in Chingola to recover metal from old mine waste, known as tailings.
KCM said in a statement on Thursday 17 September 2026 that the plant should add 70,000 tonnes a year, Reuters reported. It expects the facility to be the largest of its kind in Africa.
The contract is not yet effective and depends on conditions including an advance payment to NERIN, Mining Technology reported. For now, KCM’s stated priority is a steady ramp-up at the refurbished smelter.
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When did the Nchanga smelter restart?
KCM cast its first anode after a 106-day shutdown. The trade publication Shanghai Metals Market reported the restart on 17 September 2026. KCM confirmed it in a statement on Monday 21 September 2026, according to Reuters. The shutdown had been announced on 29 May 2026 as a 60-day programme.
How big is the Nchanga smelter?
It can produce up to 311,000 tonnes of copper a year, according to Reuters. That is capacity for copper anode, the smelted metal, not ore concentrate. Vedanta built it for about US$350 million, and it was commissioned in 2010.
Who owns Konkola Copper Mines?
Vedanta holds 79.4% through its subsidiary CopperTech Metals. ZCCM-IH, the Zambian state’s mining holding company, owns 20.6%. Zambia placed KCM in provisional liquidation in 2019, and Vedanta regained control in 2024.
Why does the Nchanga smelter restart matter for Zambia?
Zambia wants to lift national output from 890,346 tonnes in 2025 to 3 million tonnes a year by 2031. The Nchanga smelter is one of the country’s largest, according to Reuters. KCM itself aims for 300,000 tonnes a year by 2030.
Sources: Reuters via Kitco on the restart, Shanghai Metals Market on the first anode, Zed Gossip carrying the KCM statement, KCM on the planned 60-day shutdown, KCM on its shareholders, Bloomberg via Mining.com on the payment to creditors, NS Energy on ZCCM-IH ownership, Reuters via Kitco on the NERIN contract, Zambia Monitor on the tailings plant, Mining Technology on the contract conditions and the CopperTech listing
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