A key river in Zambia’s North-Western Province […]

A key river in Zambia’s North-Western Province is on the verge of being diverted as part of the $2 billion expansion of the Lumwana copper mine, fully owned and operated by Barrick Gold Corporation, a Canadian Company through its subsidiary, Lumwana Mining Company Limited.

According to official data, this major infrastructure upgrade, planned between 2025 and 2059, is necessary to access additional mineral reserves and support associated mining activities. Lumwana, wholly owned by Barrick Gold, has operated as an open-pit mine since 2006, extracting ore from the Malundwe and Chimiwungo deposits.

 The planned expansion, known as the Lumwana Expansion Project, will extend operations up to approximately 2059 and see mining activities broaden to newly explored deposits, including Kamalamba, Kababisa, and Kamisengo (formerly Lubwe).

 The expansion will involve pushbacks at the Malundwe Pit to exploit additional resources, which necessitates diverting the Malundwe River. Official sources confirm that the diversion aims to prevent water inflow into active mining areas, ensuring continued and extraction activities.

Meanwhile, according to official data, to manage water inflows at the Kamisengo Pit, located about 13 kilometers from the Chimiwungo Deposit, covering roughly 416 hectares, the Kamisengo Inflow Control Dam (KICD) will be constructed upstream, complemented by a network of diversion channels and smaller dams. The subdivision of the original Lumwana Large Scale Mining Licence 49 (LML-49) into six licenses now covers approximately 1,355 square kilometers for a period of 25 years.

Article by Tyndale Muchiya