Economy of Kitwe

de gas produced by the converters is converted into sulphuric acid which is then used at the Tailings Leach Plant in Nchanga for recovering oxide copper. The smelter also produces discard slag from the reverbs that is rich in cobalt which is stored for future reclamation. This smelter was part of the Konkola Copper Mine's operation at privatization and has subsequently closed.

The Nkana Copper Refinery produces electrolytically refined copper in the form of cathodes. The copper meets the LME premium quality grade. The tank house has a capacity of about 180,000 tons of finished copper per annum.

There are two single contact sulphuric acid plants at Smelterco, namely the No.3 and No.4 plants. No.3, the largest, is still operational. The plant has a design capacity of 1,050 tons of acid per day.

Rokana Mine is a mining company that owns Mindola Underground Mine, which mines minerals such as carrollite, chalcopyrite and libethenite.Other minerals mined are Bornite, Pyrite, Chalcocite.

There is extensive mine tailings around this mine. See Copper belt Province for the history of the copper-mining industry in this region.

There are two small tailings dams right in the city centre. There are also small-scale emerald mines in the area