Zambia's copper smelters have been hit by severe fuel shortages that could lead to cuts in this year's production figures, industry executives said on Monday.
The country's premier Konkola Copper Mines, majority owned by London-listed Vedanta Resources, said it had halved finished copper production at its Nkana smelter to 300 tonnes per day from 600 tonnes due to fuel shortages.
Mopani Copper Mines, co-owned by trader Swiss Glencore International and Canada's First Quantum Minerals, said separately it had shut its Mufulira smelter in response to a biting shortage of heavy fuels and diesel.
"We have cut production (at Nkana's smelter) by half," Konkola vice-president for corporate relations Augustine Seyuba said.
"We are living from hand to mouth in terms of diesel and we have been forced to scale down on our operations," he added.
Konkola, which produces about two-thirds of Zambia's total copper production, was meeting oil industry executives to try to find a quick solution to the crisis, Seyuba told Reuters.
Mopani General Manager Emmanuel Mutati said that his firm - Zambia's second largest copper and cobalt mine - had shut down its Mufulira smelter.
"We do not have heavy fuels and diesel and this has caused the extension of the shutdown of the Mufulira smelter from Saturday to tomorrow, although we have no update on when we are going to receive stocks of fuel," Mutati told Reuters.
Copper mining is the lifeblood of the economy of Zambia, which has been plunged into a fuel crisis since its sole Indeni oil refinery was closed three weeks ago to repair ageing equipment.
Mutati said Mopani would not meet its target of 190,000 tonnes of copper this year because the losses in copper production the mining firm had experienced since September.
"We are going to lose another 1,800 tonnes of copper this month due to erratic supply of heavy fuel. Last month we lost 1,000 tonnes of copper due to the same erratic supply of fuel," Mutati said.
"We will make efforts to try and recover but it will be very difficult," Mutati said.
Konkola offered no details of copper losses from the fuel shortages.
"We can safely assume that Konkola is facing the same difficulties as Mopani in meeting its production targets because of the fuel problems. This is likely to have an effect on annual production," said a mining expert at the Copperbelt University in the city of Kitwe.
Zambia has set a production target of 550,000 tonnes of finished copper this year.
The fuel shortages have also affected the agricultural sector and commuters, said farm groups and transport associations.
Government officials were not available to comment.
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