Vedanta is committed to South Africa and its speed of execution shows that this is not mere words, but it puts words into action, Vedanta Base Metals CEO Chris Griffith told a media briefing at the Mining Indaba in Cape Town on Wednesday.
“Our chairman bought a dormant Gamsberg from Anglo American and turned it into a world-class zinc mine within five years and the Phase Two expansion was signed off after only 18 months and is now in the execution phase,” he said.
The zinc concentrate is currently transported by road from Aggeneys in the Northern Cape to Saldanha, but Vedanta is looking to other options such as rail. Sometime in the future there was the option of a smelter either at Aggeneys or in Namibia, but at this stage there was nothing planned in part because of load shedding as smelters are energy intensive.
Turning to Zambia, Griffith was encouraged by the new Zambian leadership that had settled Vedanta’s five-year dispute with the previous regime and Vedanta would be investing $1.3 billion (R25bn) in the Konkola Deep project and rehabilitating the existing Konkola shafts.
“We will be devoting much love and attention to Konkola as it is a world-class high-grade ore body and is way cheaper than buying a new copper asset. It will be no walk in the park, but first things first before we look at other copper assets in the region,” Griffith said.
BUSINESS REPORT