By: OrePulse

A fuel shortage forced Zijin Mining Group to halt ore processing at its Bisha copper-zinc operation in Eritrea, the company said, with the stoppage expected to run for several weeks.

Zijin operates Bisha and holds the majority stake in the mine. A state-owned Eritrean mining entity holds the remaining 45 percent. The company said the halt reflected maintenance work that had been moved up from around the end of the year because of what it described as a "temporary, regional fuel shortage." Zijin said fuel supplies had since stabilized, though it did not say when ore processing would resume.

Eritrea's Ministry of Information gave a separate account, saying the plant had been closed for maintenance and was expected to restart shortly. The ministry did not give a specific restart date.

Over the past week, some buyers of Bisha's concentrate were told the stoppage could extend to as long as four weeks, raising the possibility of delayed shipments. Neither Zijin nor Eritrean officials have publicly confirmed that timeline.

Bisha produced about 83,000 tonnes of zinc and 23,000 tonnes of copper last year, making it one of only a handful of mines currently operating in Eritrea.

The shutdown comes at a time when global zinc supply is already tight. Zinc prices on the London Metal Exchange have climbed more than 20 percent this year. An extended halt at Bisha would remove output from a market that has little spare capacity to absorb it, though neither Zijin nor Eritrean authorities have said how long production will remain offline.

The disruption also coincides with renewed tension between Eritrea and Ethiopia, after the two countries severed diplomatic relations. Neither government's statements on the Bisha stoppage referenced the wider tension, and officials from both countries have not commented publicly on any connection between the two matters.

Both Zijin and Eritrea's Ministry of Information described the stoppage in similar terms, characterizing it as planned maintenance rather than an unplanned outage, though they offered differing levels of detail about its cause and expected duration. Neither party disputed the other's account.