In late April, on behalf of JCHX Mining Management, Jianzhong Zhang signed a handover document with ERG for transfer of ownership of the Lonshi copper mine in DRC, located only 3 km from the Zambia border, which Zhang told IM “blew the horn of JCHX marching into its own mining development.” Zhang is the Managing Director of JCHX’s DRC subsidiary Jimond Mining Management Company (JMMC) and is tasked with getting the mine up and running as soon as possible to take advantage of copper price highs.
He is already highly experienced having overseen JMMC’s first ramp development then underground mining contractor role at Ivanhoe Mines and Zijin Mining’s huge Kamoa-Kakula project which recently celebrated start up of its Phase 1, 3.8 Mt/y concentrator plant. Over the border JCHX is also the main mining contractor at NFC Africa Mining’s Chambishi operation.
JCHX-JMMC team underground at Kamoa-Kakula project in a 10 m high by 7.5 m wide high–grade, drift–and–fill stoping area
But the significance of Lonshi runs deeper. As a traditional mining services provider, over the past two decades, JCHX has helped build hundreds of mines both at home in China and abroad with expertise in shaft sinking, raise boring, lateral and ramp development using the latest mechanised methods and equipment. Most recently on July 3, the contract for capital development and construction works at Shalkiya lead & zinc mine in Kazakhstan was signed between a consortium of JCHX Mining Management and China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation.
Zhang told IM: “We have gained lots of experience through our performance which is reflected in praise from the clients. We have only been in the DRC for five years, where we have become a leading mining contractor and developer in our traditional mining services field but now we are fulfilling our ambition to become a leading mining owner and operator and have been acquiring copper mines. Before Lonshi, in 2019, JCHX successfully purchased the Dikulushi copper mine and although its scale is quite small, it provided a chance for us to test our abilities as we looked to broaden our business scope.”
But Lonshi is the first big milestone and is highly significant for JCHX group and its owner Chairman Xiancheng Wang, who comes from a family with six generations of mining experience. Zhang adds: “This is a major transformation because JCHX has always worked as a contractor and never a client. Lonshi copper mine, a open-pit that has been partially developed by several owners has a deposit of 0.85 Mt of copper and its hundreds of hectares of concession area offers great potential finding of more metal in the near future. This successful procurement will strengthen JCHX’s ambition to become a major mining company rather than only a mining service provider.”
To date a feasibility study has been completed and a team structured to carry out a target that the copper concentrator will be operational within two years. JCHX hopes to create a new model for mine development in DRC by optimising its existing resources such as engineering, construction, and mining capabilities in order to achieve “more output with less input.”
