C O B R E PA N A M A : F I R S T Q U A N T U M M I N E R A L S LT D .
First Quantum Minerals (FQM) has been around since the 1980s since when the TSX and LSE listed miner has been steadily growing its portfolio: today it operates or is developing a dozen major projects in nine countries
52
January 2016
O
ne of FQM’s flagship projects is the Trident development in Zambia, which we featured in Mining Global last year, as its Project Manager Randy Findlay was bringing the Sentinel mine to completion in December of 2014 with commissioning underway. We didn’t mention it at the time but he also found time to complete a 1.2 million tonnes per annum (tpa) smelter that was under construction at nearby Kanshanshi, the largest copper mine in Africa. This smelter, which ought to have cost around $1.3 billion was delivered within the same time frame as Sentinel with concurrent commissioning and completed at a total cost of $900 million. These are the kind of results that can be achieved using FQM’s self-perform model. It’s risky, but it’s fast, says Findlay. “We build mining projects cheaper than anyone else