COVID-19

Katanga sends Indian contractors home

Glencore's Katanga Mining sent 350 contractors from the Kamoto Copper mine site to Lubumbashi to be repatriated to India

Flotation cells at the Kamoto concentrator

Flotation cells at the Kamoto concentrator

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A source told Reuters Katanga is repatriating the contractors because the company is halting the commissioning of its acid plant in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

They were sent from the mine site near Kolwezi to Haut-Katanga's capital Lubumbashi to await flights back to India.

The news agency quoted the province's governor Jacques Kyabula Katwe as saying: "If it is not possible for them to go back to India next week, I will send them back to Kolwezi."

Katanga said in March that the commissioning of the plant would be delayed to the second half of this year, rather than the first half, due to travel restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

KCC had already repatriated 26 foreign workers in March in response to the global outbreak.

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