Zambian President Rancho Hichilema said the country may have the world's third-largest copper mine, Bloomberg reported. This comes after a startup backed by billionaire Bill Gates discovered a huge copper deposit in Zambia.
KoBold Metals, based in the San Francisco Bay Area, uses artificial intelligence technology to explore materials critical to the green energy transition.
KoBold Metals said this week that the grade of copper it had found at its Mingomba project far exceeded its existing production site in top copper producer Chile.
In an interview outside the capital Lusaka on Thursday, President Hichilema said: "This will not only be the largest mine in Zambia, but it will be one of the largest mines in the world, and probably one of the three largest mines in the world." We believe that when it is fully operational, production will be well in excess of 500,000 to 600,000 tonnes."
Escondida in Chile, the world's largest copper mine, produced more than 1 million tons of copper last year, followed by Grasberg in Indonesia, which will produce about 770,000 tons in 2022.
KoBold President Josh Goldman compared Zambia's copper potential to the Kamoa-Kakula copper mine in the DRC, which is being jointly developed by Ivanhoe Mines LTD and China's Zijin Mining Co. The Kamoa-Kakula mine produced nearly 400,000 tons of copper last year and would have an annual capacity of 620,000 tons if operated at full capacity.
KoBold's shareholders include Breakthrough Energy Ventures, backed by Gates and Jeff Bezos, As well as T. Rowe Price Group Inc., Bond Capital, andreessen Horowitz and Equinor ASA.
KoBold has been drilling under a Zambian licence for more than a year. Michael Bloomberg, the majority shareholder of Bloomberg News' parent company Bloomberg LP, is one of KoBold's investors, according to the company's website.
President Hichilema said the discovery had "huge" implications for Zambia.
Total copper production in Africa's second-largest producer fell below 700,000 tonnes last year.
The new plant, which could almost double output, will help President Hichilema achieve his goal of raising national copper production to 3 million tonnes by 2031.
KoBold, which did not comment on potential production levels, estimated it would cost about $2 billion to build a mine on the Mingomba project.
"When we open a new mine like this, it means we are on track to reach the 3 million tonne target," President Hichilema said.
