Barrick's Lumwana Super Pit stays on time and budget as mill building rises

Barrick Mining reported on 11 May that construction of the Lumwana Super Pit expansion in Zambia's North-Western Province continued on time and on budget during the first quarter of 2026, with first copper from the enlarged operation still expected by the end of March 2028.

Construction milestones

The company said the first lift of the concentrator's mill building wall was completed during the quarter and the mill shells had been delivered to site. The first loads of structural steel were due in the second quarter. Barrick expects spending on the project this year to land at the lower end of its $750 million to $850 million guidance range, with total project capital of around $2 billion.

The expansion is designed to roughly double Lumwana's copper output to about 240,000t a year, supported by a new processing plant of around 50 million tonnes a year, according to earlier company statements. It also includes a new power transmission arrangement developed with state utility ZESCO.

Copper performance

Barrick's total copper production for the quarter was 49,000t, which the company described as in line with plan. Unit costs rose from a year earlier, with copper C1 cash costs of $2.57/lb and all-in sustaining costs of $3.67/lb, reflecting royalties tied to higher copper prices and increased site costs.

Zambian government figures published two days later showed Lumwana among the operations that raised production in the first quarter, helping large-scale mine output rise 1.8% even as the national total fell.

Why Lumwana matters

Lumwana is central to Zambia's plan to lift national output to 3 million tonnes a year by 2031, and to Barrick's efforts to build copper into a larger share of a business still dominated by gold. When Barrick reviewed the mine in 2019, then chief executive Mark Bristow described it as high-cost and underperforming; the Super Pit is intended to turn it into one of the company's tier-one assets.

The next visible milestones will be the erection of structural steel and mechanical installation at the new plant. Keeping to schedule matters for Lusaka too: a 2028 start would make Lumwana one of the largest single sources of new Zambian copper before the end of the decade.

Sources

• GlobeNewswire (Barrick): Barrick Reports First Quarter 2026 Results, 11 May 2026
• Investing News Network: Lumwana Expansion In Full Swing As Barrick Builds Tier One Copper Mine, 10 Jul 2025
• CNBC Africa (Reuters): Zambia's copper output down 4% in the first quarter, 13 May 2026

Photo: Operations at a Zambian copper mine (Mimbula, 2023). UK Government, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.