Apr.20 (LTIT) ¨CMarket research firm BMI Research (BMI), a member of the Fitch Group, predicts positive production growth for the copper mining industry and in copper mine project development across Africa in its copper market research report ¡®Global Industry Overview¡¯, released last month.
BMI commodities analyst Molly Shutt says production growth in the international copper market will be supported by new mines starting operations, while increasing international market demand keeps the market tight.
There are several copper projects in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), as well as new copper projects under way in Botswana, Namibia and South Africa, which show that the copper mining industry in Africa will continue to grow, she adds. It is projected that the copper industry will grow at a yearly rate of 3.6% on average.
According to BMI¡¯s mine database in South Africa, the Prieska zinc and copper project, located 270 km outside of Kimberley, in the Northern Cape, is continuing production. In February, the first mineral resources estimate report for the mine was released.
The combined total mineral resource for the Prieska zinc-copper project, released earlier this month, has increased to 29.4-million tonnes, containing 1.126-million tonnes zinc at 3.8% zinc and 365 000 t copper at 1.2% copper.
There are more than 30 copper mines currently operating in the Copper belt in the DRC. Further, the African copper mining industry will see project development pick up, as prices remain elevated. Globally, fundamentals continue to improve as a solid demand growth outlook and supply disruptions over 2017 keep the market tight.
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