Africa’s first non-ferrous metal mining tunnel boring machine has completed a trial excavation period at NFCA’s Chambishi copper mine in Zambia. The machine, China Nonferrous Metals No. 2, was built jointly by China Railway Construction Heavy Industry and China Metallurgical Corporation 15, which also provide operating and maintenance services. Between August 26 and September 25, monthly footage exceeded 422.4 metres, with a maximum of 42.2 metres in a single day and more than 22.2 metres in a single shift.
The trial ran in hard conditions at about 1,000 metres depth: high hardness, fast tool wear in quartzite layers, high underground temperatures and a complex operating environment. The team tailored the machine’s structure and parameters, optimised the slag and gravel treatment system, and upgraded ventilation and cooling. Tool replacement cycles, maintenance and rock support plans were set from the observed wear patterns.
CRCHI described the trial as successful, verifying its customised mining TBM technology and its product plus service model for African hard rock mines. The claim is worth tracking rather than taking at face value: trial footage over one month is not a production rate, and Chambishi’s economics will depend on sustained advance, tool costs in quartzite and downtime.
Even with that caveat, the direction is notable. Mechanised excavation of this kind is standard in civil tunnelling but rare in metal mining, and a Chinese equipment and operator package performing at depth in Zambia is another marker of Chinese firms’ deepening role in African copper production.