First Quantum Minerals
 |
|
| Public | |
| Traded as | : FM : S&P/TSX 60 component |
| Industry | Mining |
| Founded | 1996 |
| Headquarters | Vancouver, BC, Canada |
|
Key people
|
Philip K.R. Pascall |
|
Number of employees
|
1,800 (2008) |
| Website | www.first-quantum.com |
First Quantum Minerals Ltd. is a Vancouver, British Columbia based mining and metals company whose principal activities include mineral exploration, development and mining.
First Quantum's common shares are listed for trading on the in Canada (symbol "FM"), and the (symbol "FQM") in the United Kingdom.
In June 2013, it was announced that FQM would have to lay off 500 workers at the Sentinel mine in Zambia as it could not sustain their upkeep while waiting for the lifting of a protection order on its operations from the Zambia Environmental Management Agency.
In July 2013, the company received the best mining industry award at the Zambia International Trade Fair.
In 2016 First Quantum produced 539,458 tonnes of copper, 23,624 tonnes contained tonnes of nickel, 214,012 ounces of gold and 28,862 tonnes of zinc, exceeding previously announced market guidance and 2015 production levels.
At the end of September 2012, First Quantum Minerals announced that it had entered into a joint venture with a Zambian-based mining company called Mimosa Resources. The purpose of the venture is to develop the Fishtie copper project in the Central province of Zambia, in the Mkushi District near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The Kolwezi tailings project was a major project to extract copper and cobalt from tailings of older mining operations around Kolwezi. It was expected to produce around 70,000 tonnes per year of copper metal and up to 14,000 tonnes per year of cobalt hydroxide. In August 2009, the DRC government revoked First Quantum's license due to a dispute over renegotiating the contract. First Quantum stopped operations in September 2009, throwing about 700 people out of work. First Quantum had spent $750 million on acquiring and developing the property. First Quantum took out an action against the DRC government in the International Chamber of Commerce Court of Arbitration.
The Frontier Mine is an open pit copper mine located near Sakania. First Quantum obtained exploration licenses in January 2001 and July 2002. Production began in 2007, and in 2010 the mine yielded 322,700 tonnes of copper. The Lonshi Mine is an open pit copper mine that produces high-grade oxide ore that was transported to Zambia for processing at the Bwana Mkubwa SX/EW plant 35 kilometres (22 mi) away. The mine was closed after the governor of Katanga province, Moses Katumbi, banned the export of ore to Zambia, insisting that it should be refined in Katanga. In May 2010 a Congolese court ruled that FQM's Lonshi and Frontier copper mines had been awarded illegally and that they should revert to state-owned Sodimico. According to FQM the ruling was due to FQM's decision to contest the expropriation of their Kolwezi tailings project, which was later sold to the Kazakh mining company Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation.
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