China Molybdenum's expansion project at its Tenke Fungurume Mining (TFM) mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo started trial production on July 16, the company said ina statement, Reuters reported.
The TFM expansion project is expected to produce 88,500 tonnes of cathode copper and 7,280 tonnes of cobalt hydroxide, Luoyang Molybdenum said.
The company also said it had a designed capacity of 3.3m tonnes of copper ore a year.
The Giant Tenke Fungurume copper mine is one of the largest copper and cobalt mines in the world, producing 182,597 tonnes of copper and 15,436 tonnes of cobalt in 2020.
The company said it planned to increase copper production at the mine to 187,300 tonnes to 228,900 tonnes and cobalt production to 16,500 tonnes to 20,100 tonnes this year.
"This expansion will add 10,000 tonnes of ore daily processing capacity... To 25,000 tonnes, the annual production of copper and cobalt will increase significantly."
The company said it could also "take advantage of rising metal prices" to further improve profitability as the project enters trial production.
Copper for three-month delivery on the London Metal Exchange is up more than 20 per cent by 2021, while cobalt is up more than 60 per cent.
