Lusaka — Kansanshi Mine Plc will this year invest US $100 million to boost copper ore production to eight million tonnes per year, general manager Jim Gorman has said.

Gorman, who described the mine's first year of production as reasonable, said this year's investments will bring the total investments at Kansanshi to US $400 million.

Kansanshi is the newest mining operation in Zambia which only produced the first copper concentrate in December 2004 and the first copper cathode is expected in March 2005.

Gorman said the mine was currently installing the Pressure Leach facility at the cost of US $73 million which he said would boost production by 67,000 metric tonnes.

He said the mine would was also carry out the sulphide expansion at the cost of US $23 million.

Although Gorman would not state how much copper the mine produced in its first year as that is subject to corporate announcement soon, said the mine envisaged to average 140,000 metric tonnes of copper per year over the next four years. He said the mine's cost of producing copper was within limits of its pre-feasibility study which estimated it at 45 cents per pound Meanwhile, Gorman said the appreciation of the kwacha had somehow reduced the cost of production for the mine. He said so far the appreciation of the kwacha had had no negative effect.

"The price of diesel has gone down and our suppliers are no longer charging in dollars anymore," he said. "We don't see it as a major issue."

And Gorman said it would not be cost effective to build a dual carriageway to North Western Province.

He said the most effective way to improve the transport system would be to construct a single carriage-way which would support the current freight.

He said the current road would not last as it was not designed to carry the load it carries.

Gorman, whose firm contributed US $150,000 to a feasibility study for the expansion of the transport system, said another pre-feasibility study was being conducted for the construction of a railway line to North Western Province.