Chinese firm takes over Zambia nickel mine in Aug

Wed Jul 29, 2009 11:58am GMT

"Jinchuan will become the majority shareholders with above 70 percent of the shares," Maxwell Mwale told Reuters in an interview.

"Officials from Jinchuan will be coming to Zambia next week to finalise the take over arrangements and we are hoping that they will take possession of the mine by the end of August."

Production at Munali was targeted at 10,000 tonnes of nickel per year.

Nickel prices on the London Metal Exchange had fallen more than 80 percent to below $10,000 a tonne by the time the mine suspended operations, from a record high of $51,800 in May 2007 as demand from stainless steel producers slumped due to the global downturn. Prices have since ticked up.

LUSAKA (Reuters) - China's largest nickel producer Jinchuan Group Ltd. will take over Zambia's sole nickel mine Munali next month after the operations were suspended in March due to low nickel prices, the mines minister said on Wednesday.