Mining company Metorex said yesterday it would speed development of a copper mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo to benefit from metal price gains.

The opencast Ruashi Phase Two will produce 45000 tons of copper and 3500 tons of cobalt a year from 2008, 18 months sooner than the company had planned, Metorex CE Charles Needham said.

For Metorex and companies such as New York-based Phelps Dodge, the lure of Congo's copper and cobalt deposits outweighs political unrest in the country where more than 4-million people died in a civil war that ended four years ago.

The copper price has more than trebled from the $2100 a ton Metorex assumed in its original studies on the project.

"We want to accelerate copper production, which will hopefully coincide with this sweet spot in the market," Needham said.

"We'd like to have it up and running by the second quarter of 2008," he said.

While copper prices have dropped 29% from a record $8800 a ton on May 11, the metal has posted a fourfold gain in the past four years.

Copper for three-month delivery on the London Metal Exchange was quoted at $6805 during afternoon trading yesterday. It traded as low as $1336 a ton on November 7 2001.

Standard Bank, SA's largest lender, is the lead finance arranger for the mine and processing plant, which would cost about $140m.

Metorex was seeking "bridging finance" of as much as $25m to order items that may take longer to deliver, Needham said.

The mine is near the southern city of Lubumbashi. Ruashi Phase One, a dump-processing operation using decades-old stockpiles of copper and cobalt-bearing rock, will begin production at the end of this month and will operate for four years.

Metorex's stock traded 30c lower at R9 on the JSE yesterday.

The stock has jumped 25% this year, compared with a 6% gain by the 19-member FTSE/JSE Africa mining index.