By John Travolter Matali
TSUMEB – Dundee Precious Metals on Monday shut down some parts of its Tsumeb smelter for 25 days to allow for routine maintenance work to be done.
Dundee Precious Metals – Tsumeb Vice-President and General Manager Hans Nolte said the shutdown would in no way have any impact on the ongoing construction of the state-of-the-art N$2,3 billion sulphuric acid plant, which is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2014. There are about 800 people working on the plant.
“The acid plant is still under construction and work won’t be interrupted by the shutdown,” said Nolte.
He adds that the shutdown is not a complete shutdown of everything at the smelter as it basically only focuses on the copper smelter area where the concentrates are smelted and where the blister copper is produced.