EMR Capital, an Australian private equity firm, has announced plans to acquire Vale and African Rainbow Minerals’ (ARM) stake in the Lubambe copper mine in Zambia.

According to ARM, it has agreed with Brazil’s Vale to sell their combined 80% interest in the mine to Melbourne-based EMR for $97.1m in cash.

Johannesburg-listed ARM has been looking to offload its stake in the Lubambe mine since September last year when it reported a R1.4bn ($134m) impairment at the Zambian operation. 

Both Vale and ARM own 40% of the mine each.

Jason Chang, EMR CEO, said the Lubambe acquisition reflected the firm’s confidence in the quality of the project as a long-life copper producer located in Zambia’s most prolific mining region, the Copperbelt.

“We are pleased to enter into an agreement to acquire Lubambe, which offers exceptional quality and growth potential and which will substantially enhance the value and depth of our copper portfolio,” he said.

The Lubambe agreement follows the closure of EMR’s second private equity fund at $860m. 

EMR Capital has offices in Melbourne, Sydney, Cayman Island and networks across the globe.

The firm manages mining investments worth more than $2bn.