REFILE-Vendanta Zambia unit miners win 17 pct pay rise

* Pay rise effective January 2012

* Lowest paid to get $590 per month

LUSAKA, Jan 27 (Reuters) - Konkola Copper Mines, the Zambia miner owned by Vedanta Resources Plc, has awarded its workers a 17 percent pay increase, ending weeks of negotiations, a union official said on Friday.

"We signed the new agreement yesterday and the lowest paid employee will now get 3 million Zambian kwacha ($590) per month," Mine Workers' Union of Zambia president Oswell Munyenyembe said.

The pay rise was backdated to Jan.1, 2012, he said.

Negotiating are still underway at First Quantum Minerals' Kansanshi mine, Glencore International's Mopani Copper Mines and other Chinese owned mines, Munyenyembe said.

Copper mining is Zambia's economic lifeblood and a key employer in the southern African country of 13 million people.