CHINGOLA, 3 May, 2017, A total of 411 workers of various contractors have been re-engaged at KCM’s Nchanga Underground Mine (NUG) following the resumption of operations at the mine in September 2016. NUG was placed on a managed care and maintenance in 2015.

Of the miners recalled, 162 were brought back last week and are currently undergoing reorientation while the rest have already started working at the NUG. Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) has additionally recalled 581 of its own employees who were placed in various operations within KCM following the managed care and maintenance of the NUG. This brings to 992 the total number of the workforce at the NUG.

KCM CEO Steven Din said “we are delighted to welcome back our colleagues to Nchanga. At a time when many companies have been forced to retrench staff due to global price pressure, we have focused on driving operational efficiencies at NUG to enable us to re-hire workers and ramp up production”.

A technical evaluation of the NUG was completed to determine the viability of the mine in the current scenario of depressed global commodity prices which informed the decision to reopen the mine.