Zambia's Konkola Copper Mine (KCM) owned by India's mining firm Vedanta Resources is to spend 750 million U.S. dollars to implement a deep mining project involving sinking a new shaft, deepening an existing shaft and construction of a new smelter and acid plant.

Output of the copper mine will be lifted to six million tons from the current level of 2.4 million tons upon completion of the new project in 2009, which will extend its lifespan to 2035, KCM chairman Navin Agarwal said.

Agarwal said the new smelter plant will produce 250,000 tons of copper annually while the acid plant will manufacture 1,700 tons of acid per day.

"KCM will have created the capacity within Zambia to treat all the copper concentrate that will be produced by other stand alone copper mines, thereby enabling the country to export value-added finished copper rather than exporting raw material concentrate," Agarwal said in a statement on Saturday.

Vedanta Resources is a London-listed Indian mining group which bought 51 percent shares in KCM in November 2004 after South African mining firm Anglo American Corporation withdrew from KCM.

Zambia is one of the world's top copper producers possessing 15 percent of the total copper reserves.

The country's copper production has picked up in recent years after mining companies pumped new investment on the back of increasing demand for the commodity and high prices on the international market.

Industry experts say the copper production in Zambia is expected to climb to 750,000 tons by 2010, the best level recorded in the 1970s.

Source: Xinhua