First Quantum Minerals Ltd said a final feasibility study for its US$163.4m Kansanshi copper-gold mine in Zambia sees copper cathode output at 60,000 tonnes a year for the first three years.
The company, which has three other copper projects in Zambia, intends to finance the project with a US$120m loan, half of it an export credit facility through the Export Credit Insurance Corp. of South Africa and the rest as commercial debt.
The company said it expects construction of the mine, located in Zambia's copper belt, in the North Western province, to begin in the second half of 2003, with commercial production reached in the last quarter of 2004.
"We are in the final stages of completing a financing package for Kansanshi with the goal of draw-down and initiation of construction in the second quarter," Martin Rowley, First Quantum's chief financial officer, said in a statement.
