The board of Sesa Sterlite has approved $782 million to be invested in Africa over a period of three years. The money will be utilised for the development of Gamsberg-Skorpion Integrated Zinc project in South Africa and the conversion of Skorpion Zinc Refinery in Namibia.

From the total investment, $630 million will be used for developing an open-pit zinc mine, concentrator plant and associated infrastructure at Gamsberg. The remaining amount will be used to convert the refinery at the Skorpion Mine in Rosh Pinah, Namibia. This refinery will enable the mine to refine the zinc concentrates from the Gamsberg mine into special high grade zinc metal.

Sesa Sterlite expects to start construction of the new mine during the first quarter of 2015 and is likely to produce first ore in 2017/18. The Gamsberg project will create 1,500 jobs during construction and result in around 500 permanent jobs. It will be operated under the auspices of Black Mountain Mining.