Etoile mine

The Etoile mine is located at an elevation of about above sea level. The climate is sub-tropical, with annual rainfall of about falling mostly in the October to March period. Average temperatures are between and , with no marked difference between summer and winter. The region lies in a zone that would naturally be covered by Miombo Woodland, deciduous tropical woodlands. Lying on the edge of Lubumbashi, much of the woodland has been cleared. The Etoile orebody lies within the copperbelt that stretches from Luanshya in Zambia to Kolwezi in the DRC. As with many of the deposits in southern Katanga, it is a stratiform copper-cobalt deposit. An enlarged oxide cap about overlays an inclined stratiform sulphide deposit. ==Early production==

Tanganyika Concessions dug pits and trenches in the area in 1907. Union Minière du Haut Katanga (UMHK) discovered the Etoile ore body in 1911, and the Ruashi ore body in 1919. For the next half century both properties were quarried intermittently for their high-grade copper ore. UMHK was nationalized in 1967. Control of all copper and cobalt exploration and production was given to Gécamines, established as the state mining company. Gécamines operated the Ruashi and Etoile mines until the end of the 1960s. Artisanal miners then worked the two mines until 2000, when they were put up for sale separately. ==Recent operations==

Chemaf gained the rights to Etoile in 2003. A 2008 assessment confirmed that there was 13.5 million tonnes of ore in the pit, graded 3.3% copper and 0.55% cobalt. The unusually high grade of cobalt means that this contributes over half the revenue. The mine produced 1,071,516 tonnes of ore in 2009. The nearby Ruashi mine includes a plant to concentrate the ore from both mines and a modern solvent extraction electrowinning (SX-EW) processing plant. ==References==