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    Konkola’s Nchanga Tailings Leach Plant: design and risk notes for mine engineers

    November 7, 2026|

    Reviewed by Joe Ashwell

    First reported on International Mining – News

    30 Second Briefing

    Konkola Copper Mines has secured ZCCM Investments Holdings’ approval and signed a US$498 million EPC contract with China NERIN Engineering to build a new Tailings Leach Plant at Nchanga, set to be the largest in Africa. The project will reprocess existing tailings rather than fresh ore, signalling a long-term shift towards higher metal recovery from legacy waste streams on the Copperbelt. Engineers should expect large-scale acid leach, solvent extraction and electrowinning circuits, with significant implications for tailings storage, solution management and water balance design.

    Technical Brief

    • State-controlled ZCCM-IH involvement implies Zambian regulatory oversight on tailings, process safety and environmental compliance.
    • China NERIN’s EPC role centralises design responsibility, simplifying HAZOP, constructability and operability reviews for process safety.
    • Large-scale acid leach circuits will require stringent containment, corrosion-resistant materials and secondary bunding to manage spill risk.
    • Solvent extraction and electrowinning sections will demand fire-safe layouts, ventilation and strict electrolyte handling procedures.
    • Reprocessing legacy tailings necessitates updated stability assessments of existing TSFs under altered pore pressures and solution cycling.
    • Similar Copperbelt projects can benchmark safety management systems and emergency response planning against this high-profile EPC framework.

    Our Take

    Within our 1962 copper-tagged pieces, Zambia features less frequently than the DRC and Chile, so a US$498 million EPC at Nchanga signals a relative strengthening of Zambia’s project pipeline and could sharpen competition for regional smelting and refining capacity.

    ZCCM-IH’s 20.6% equity position in Konkola Copper Mines PLC means state-linked interests are directly exposed to the performance and ESG track record of the Tailings Leach Plant at Nchanga, which typically tightens scrutiny on safety and water management compared with purely private copper operations in our database.

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    Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.

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