A mining expert and Copperbelt University – CBU don professor Peter Chileshe has called for the reverting back and holding of emerald auctions to Zambia as this move is a great idea of increasing price transparency in the sector.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with the Zambian Business Times –ZBT, Prof. Chileshe said emerald auctions should return back to Zambia in order to allow buyers and sellers to reach a negotiation point locally to improve price transparency and national accountability.
Professor Chileshe said locally held emerald auctions will also help the Zambia Revenue Authority – ZRA – to establish actual income generated by the emerald mining companies, which would help improve revenue collection.
The mining expert told ZBT that locally held Emerald auctions create a competitive environment in Zambia in order to maximise the bargaining power, and ultimately achieve a higher prices. He said they are an important part of selling as they have a rapid and effective means of positioning of goods.
He however said the only disadvantage that comes with emeralds auctions is that buyers may secretly gang up or form a cartel to under bid or to force prices down. This is complicated to deal with even if we hold the auctions locally.
Other benefits of holding Emeral auctions in Zambia is the increased visibility of the country, boosting of business tourism as the bidder have to travel to Zambia as well as affording the small scale miners a ready and lucrative market to sell their emeralds.
Zambia boosts of having the largest emerald mines in the world but realizing true value from these precious stones remains a challenge. Some mining experts contend that when the auctions were held locally, revenue declarations and tax collections from this sector improved. But their is limited publicly available data to prove this.
