The exploitation rights are owned by the Kamoto Copper Company (KCC), a joint venture between Katanga Mining (75%) and the state-owned Gécamines (25%).

The plan was to use a combination of the traditional room-and-pillar mining system and the more modern and effective longhole retreat stoping technique.

Kamoto Copper Company planned to build an ion exchange system to separate uranium out from the cobalt.

[8] As of 2020, Glencore announced the mine was ramping up to a planned full production volume of 270,000 tonnes of copper cathode, and 25,000 tones of cobalt hydroxide for 2020.

[9] Gécamines started operating the Luilu refinery at Kolwezi in 1952, taking ores from the western Katanga open pit mines and producing copper concentrates.

Locals report that fish can't survive in the acidic water downstream from the plant.