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CopperTech director Tom Albanese told Fastmarkets in an interview on Tuesday November 11 that the company, launched by Vedanta to operate KCM earlier this month, now has the resources and political backing to expand production and supply the US at a time when global copper and cobalt demand is rising.
Albanese framed the revival as a combination of modernization and strategic alignment.
“Virtually every way you look at the evolving nature of the economy, it is going to be more copper-intensive,” he said.
Building on Vedanta’s existing $3 billion investment in the Zambian mine, CopperTech is moving quickly to capitalize on this backdrop. Albanese said that the company intends to raise integrated copper production to 300,000 tonnes by 2031 from 140,000 tonnes next year, with the potential to reach 500,000 tonnes per year in the longer-term.
Power and infrastructure were still constraining factors, though Albanese is optimistic that the environment is improving. The Zambian government is increasingly receptive to independent power projects, while the Lobito Corridor offers an efficient route to Atlantic ports, he said.
These improvements, combined with high-grade ore and a skilled workforce, support the planned ramp-up in production, Albanese said.
CopperTech is based in the US, an acknowledgment that the push by that country’s government to reduce reliance on Chinese copper supplies has created a window for producers with the right combination of scale and security, Albanese said.
“There’s a recognition in the US that you cannot outsource all your manufacturing and all your metal-making to China – you need to have your own capabilities,” he said. “In order for the US to be strategically positioned, it must actually have that industrial base and it must have the metal supply behind it.”
US government data shows that the country currently imports around 45% of its refined copper. As a result, CopperTech is already exploring ways to supply US refining capacity.
Currently, most of KCM’s output is produced as anodes, but Albanese said that the company is assessing long-term agreements to supply and potentially refine copper in the US.
“We have been trying to test spot anode business into the US,” he said. “But my interest is to see if there is a way to create a longer-term anode relationship, with the support of the government of Zambia, to refine those in the US.
“It might be that, at some point in time, when the power situation resolves itself in Zambia, we can look at bringing refining production back into Zambia,” he added.
Cobalt, produced as a copper-cobalt alloy at KCM, is another area of focus.
“There have been several efforts in the US to create some self-reliance in cobalt capacity, and that’s another area I’m going to encourage the team to tap into,” he said. “We have options – obviously, we can go to a cobalt salt or metal in Zambia, or we can work with someone who’s already trying to get some cobalt production within the US.”
The workforce is a critical asset. KCM employs 12,500 people, including contractors; and many of the original team remain.
Albanese, who was chief executive officer of Vedanta from 2014 to 2017 and of Rio Tinto from 2007 to 2013, recalled the challenges that have faced KCM in the past.
“There has never, ever been any question about KCM’s [copper] endowment,” he told Fastmarkets. “We know there is a lot of copper there, we know it’s high grade – it’s fairly homogeneous once you’re in that that belt. But we had a couple of challenges at that time.”
The first of those, he said, was a lack of capital and inclination to invest in copper operations. “The industry had been quite a bit capital-starved,” he said, “and all of a sudden it came into a squeeze. Unfortunately, KCM at that time was at the front end of that constraint on capital.”
The other key limitation was the expansion worldwide of China’s Belt & Road initiative, which coincided with the previous Zambian government becoming progressively more opposed to foreign investment, Albanese said.
“These issues created constraints – we could not get the electricity we needed, we could not get support and we were having tax issues. It was not an investment-conducive environment,” he added.
Now, the political landscape as shifted. The Zambian government is focused on bringing investment into the country, Albanese said, with the development of the Lobito Corridor helping toward that goal.
AI and advanced technology are central to the company’s plans. According to Albanese, CopperTech will use machine-learning to integrate decades of legacy drilling data with new geophysical surveys, speeding the conversion of inferred resources into indicated reserves.
He also sees opportunities to unlock higher-grade ore along the underground limbs of the KCM deposit, and to optimize production sequencing.
CopperTech also plans to work on exploration in parallel Albanese said, working on former as well as new greenfield projects across Zambia and other African nations, and potentially in the Middle East.
In Hotter Commodities, special correspondent Andrea Hotter covers some of the biggest stories impacting the natural resources sector. Read more coverage on our dedicated Hotter Commodities page here.