Vedanta's Zambia unit halts copper production after power outage

LUSAKA (Reuters) - Vedanta Resources' Zambian unit, Konkola Copper Mines (KCM), halted production on Monday after a nationwide power outage, a company spokesman said on Tuesday.

Spokesman Shapi Shachinda said production at both the Nchanga underground mine and Konkola mine was suspended, adding that "it is estimated that it will take at least three days to pump water from some of the flooded areas at Konkola mine."

Operations at the tailings leach plant had also ceased and the impact on output and financial losses were across KCM, he said, but could not immediately give an estimate.

"The extent of damage to (electrical) equipment will be quantified," he said.

Shachinda said power supply was restored to KCM on Tuesday morning but was again distrupted after about three hours.

KCM had activated its emergency 24 megawatt generator at Konkola mine and received an additional 46 MW from neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo through Copperbelt Energy Corp. (CEC) to service key areas, he said.

Henry Kapata, the spokesman of Zambia's state-owned power company Zesco, said almost the entire country lost electricity supply on Monday night following "a system disturbance" which was still being investigated.

KCM said last week it would continue to lose money after the cabinet set the royalty tax rate for copper mining at 9 percent and a corporate income tax rate of 30 percent.

(Reporting by Chris Mfula; Editing by James Macharia)