The Zambia Environmental Management Agency has given the go ahead for construction of a $450 million new acid plant, expected to improve capacity and reduce sulphur dioxide emissions.

Mopani Copper Mines (MCM) sought approval to build the acid plant at its Mufulira based copper operations as part of on-going smelter upgrading projects – into which the company has already invested $2.2 billion. The plant is expected to double capacity to a total of 850,000 tonnes per year, and reduce sulphur dioxide emissions by as much as 95 percent.

It is hoped that now approval has been granted, the construction of the acid plant can quickly commence with completion scheduled for December 2013.

Chief Executive Officer of MCM Danny Callow voiced the company’s pleasure at the approval having been received, and highlighted the environmental importance of the systemic upgrades at the company’s operations, saying: “The plant will capture and convert sulphur dioxide into sulphuric acid, leaving the environment clean and sustainable,” reports the Times of Zambia.

MCM had come under criticism from the Environmental Agency and local communities due to the amount of pollution being produced by its operations at Mufulira, resulting in part from the company operating the smelter with an outdated acid plant.

The acid plant currently in operation was installed in 2007, and captured less than half of sulphur dioxide emissions.  The company claims the new plant will capture 97 percent of emissions.

Speaking on the proposed new plant earlier this year, Callow has stressed the environmental importance of getting the new plant approved, and acknowledged the impact on local communities of the pollution caused by the smelter, adding: “This is further demonstration of Mopani’s commitment to address the problem of sulphur dioxide, which has affected the community in Kankoyo, Mufulira, for more than 80 years since the first smelter was commissioned in the early 1930s.”