Frontier Mine is a copper mine in Katanga Province

Katanga Province

Katanga Province is one of the provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Between 1971 and 1997, its official name was Shaba Province. Under the new constitution, the province was to be replaced by four smaller provinces by February 2009; this did not actually take place.Katanga's regional...

, Democratic Republic of the Congo

Democratic Republic of the Congo

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a state located in Central Africa. It is the second largest country in Africa by area and the eleventh largest in the world...

 (DRC) that was owned and operated by the Canadian Mining Company First Quantum Minerals

First Quantum Minerals

First Quantum Minerals Ltd. is a Vancouver, British Columbia based mining and metals company whose principal activities include mineral exploration, development and mining....

. As of 2008, the mine had annual capacity of 84,000 tonnes of copper.

Location

The mine is located 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) from the Zambia

Zambia

Zambia , officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west....

n border, near to the town of Sakania

Sakania

Sakania is a town in Haut-Katanga District, in the far south of the Democratic Republic of Congo, near the border with Zambia.It is located at an elevation of 1278m asl ,therefore it has a cool climate....

.
The main railway from the Zambian copperbelt to Lubumbashi

Lubumbashi

Lubumbashi is the second largest city in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, second only to the nation's capital Kinshasa, and the hub of the southeastern part of the country. The copper-mining city serves as the capital of the relatively prosperous Katanga Province, lying near the Zambian border...

 in the DRC runs within 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) of the site.
The area was explored in the 1930s, and Union Minière

Union Minière du Haut Katanga

The Union Minière du Haut Katanga was a Belgian mining company, once operating in Katanga, in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo...

 found copper in 1932. The area was further explored in the 1970s. Companies who have explored in the region include Anglo American and a joint venture between Sodimico

Sodimico

Sodimico is a state-owned mining company in the Democratic Republic of the Congo .-Early years:...

 and a Japanese group.

Development

First Quantum obtained exploration licenses in January 2001 and July 2002. Production began in 2007, and in 2010 the mine yielded 322,700 tonnes of copper.
In August 2010 the DRC government seized Frontier, the largest copper mine in the country, saying First Quantum had been "unreasonable" in refusing to renegotiate the terms of the contract.
The government-owned company Sodimico

Sodimico

Sodimico is a state-owned mining company in the Democratic Republic of the Congo .-Early years:...

 was granted the titles to First Quantum's Frontier and Lonshi

Lonshi Mine

Lonshi Mine is a copper mine in Katanga Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the southeast of Ndola, Zambia.-Operations:The mine produces high-grade oxide ore that was transported to Zambia for processing at the SX/EW facility in Bwana....

mines.
In August 2011 Sodimico said it had sold its share in the two copper projects for $30 million.
This was less than a sixteenth of the estimated value of the stake. The purchaser was not named.