Private company

Konkola Copper Mines

Zambian copper mining company

Konkola Copper Mines (abbreviated to KCM) is a copper mining and smelting company in Zambia. It is 80% owned by Vedanta Resources, a mining conglomerate based in Mumbai and London.2 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

1999Founded1
  • Industrymining1
  • HeadquartersLusaka1
  • Legal formjoint-stock company1
Zambia 2
Photo: BlueSalo, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons4

Konkola Copper Mines (abbreviated to KCM) is a copper mining and smelting company in Zambia. It is 80% owned by Vedanta Resources, a mining conglomerate based in Mumbai and London.2

The story

The company declared insolvency in early 2019. Later that year, 1,826 Zambians obtained permission from the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom in its Lungowe v Vedanta Resources plc ruling to sue Vedanta for local water pollution caused by KCM that started in 2005. Also in 2019, Lusaka High Court of Zambia blocked the sale of Konkola's assts by the company's liquidator. The court's judgement enabled the state controlled minority owner ZCCM Investment Holdings to enter arbitration with the majority shareholder Vendanta Resources.

Vendanta agreed a financial settlement for all pollution claims, without admitting liability, in 2021.

From Wikipedia’s article on Konkola Copper Mines, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3

Products and brands

  • copper

Listed on Wikidata.1

The company is 80% owned by Vedanta Resources and 20% owned by the state mining company of Zambia, ZCCM Investments Holdings.

KCM produces 2 million tons of copper ore per year. The company's Konkola Deep Mining Project will expand its capacity to 6 million tons of ore per year.

Company assets include Konkola Copper Mine, Nchanga Copper mine near Chingola, Nampundwe Pyrites Mine and Nkana Refinery in Kitwe - the largest copper smelter in Zambia.

Exports were transported to the ports of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania and Durban in South Africa. Principal markets included the Middle East and East Asia. Metal was also sold domestically, to Metal Fabricators of Zambia.

From Wikipedia’s article on Konkola Copper Mines, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3

Timeline

  1. 1999Founded Founded1

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

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