Zambia’s leading mining firm, FQM, hit by power crisis

First Quantum Minerals (FQM) says it is working with ZESCO to help source imported power to ensure that production plans are maintained.

The company claims to be buying an average of 224,000 megawatt hours of electricity every month from ZESCO.

ZESCO, however, reported that it recently invoked the force majeure clause in its power supply agreements with some mines, signalling a need for supplementary power to be purchased from outside the country.

This is contained in a statement issued on Friday.

Read more: Imported electricity to constitute 20% of total available power for one year —ZESCO

FQM Director Zambia, Anthony Mukutuma, said importing power would ensure FQM 2024 and 2025 production plans were maintained.

Mukutuma said this was arrived at after ZESCO extended load-shedding to mining companies.

“Given the critical importance of the mining industry to Zambia’s economy and continued prosperity, FQM has been working with ZESCO to ensure the FQM mines can continue operating uninterrupted during this low generation capacity period.

“The cost of imported power will be higher, but these are unusual times and our teams are looking at various efficiency improvement and cost reduction initiatives to manage our overall costs,” he said.

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