Management orders shutdown of Nchanga Smelter to contain molten metal leak, lives saved

Konkola Copper Mines has announced that the Nchanga Smelter, which is operated by its subsidiary, KCM SmelterCo Limited has been shut down to facilitate repair works following a molten metal leakage from one of the furnaces.

KCM General Manager for Corporate Affairs, Shapi Shachinda, in a statement issued in Kitwe on Tuesday said there was no loss of life or injuries to employees during the incident.

Shachinda said around 07:30 hours on Monday, June 26, 2023, furnace parameters as read by the operator from the distributed control system (DCS), showed signs of metal leak.

“All employees were immediately evacuated to safety before the metal leak in line with protocols implemented at the Nchanga smelter, which worked well,” Shachinda said.

He said the area was then barricaded to ensure safety and the KCM Fire Department was alerted about the incident.

“KCM Plc Provisional Liquidator Ms Celine Nair stated that “KCM has now commenced a 21-day smelter shutdown to repair the Flash Smelting Furnace (FSF), and eventually stabilize smelter operations,” Shachinda said.

He said the shutdown period will be used to conduct repairs to the furnace, before commencing system heating-up to restart the processing plant.

“During this period, the acting Chief Executive Officer Enock Mponda, added that KCM will rely on acid from the 500-tonnes-per day acid plant at Nchanga operations to feed the Tailings Leach Plant (TLP) for copper processing, and procure additional acid in order to plug the gap of acid production from the smelter,” Shachinda said.

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