The Financial Post reports in its Wednesday, Aug. 20, edition that First Quantum Minerals is commissioning a $1.25-billion (U.S.) expansion at its Kansanshi copper mine in Zambia. A Bloomberg dispatch to the Post reports that the S3 project includes a new processing plant that nearly doubles Kansanshi's ore-milling capacity, expands the smelter's throughput capacity by about 25 per cent and opens up a new pit. It is scheduled to be commissioned on Tuesday. The biggest copper investment in Zambia in almost a decade will help boost output at Kansanshi in the country's Northwestern Province. The asset will produce an average 250,000 tonnes of the metal yearly through 2044, up from 171,000 tonnes last year. First Quantum's higher output will counterbalance a significant sales drop after Panama ordered the closure of its flagship mine in late 2023. Zambia will gain from increased royalties and taxes, supporting President Hakainde Hichilema's goal to triple the country's copper output by the early 2030s. With the $10-billion (U.S.) Cobre Panama mine closed, First Quantum's Zambian operations supplied over 90 per cent of the firm's output last year and accounted for more than half of Zambia's copper production.