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Mining

FEIRA constituency Member of Parliament, Emmanuel Tembo says Mwembeshi Resources Limited the company which has been given a license to do copper mining in the Lower Zambezi national park is expected to commence production before end of this year.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with the Zambian Business Times – ZBT – Tembo said preparations towards the commencement of the actual mining have advanced with the first production expected this year.

The ruling UPND government’s decision to go ahead and implement the historical approval, which the immediate former ruling party PF government had approved the opening of an open pit mine in the lower Zambezi national park, has raised concerns with environmental experts calling on the government to halt the planned mining.

Environmental experts are questioning how the country will this time around manage to get maximum benefits from the proposed mine when it’s a known fact that successive governments including the current government have failed to get maximum benefits from the existing large scale mines on the Copperbelt and North-Western provinces.

Faira Member of Parliament Emmanuel Tembo however is of the view that it would be folly for the country to be in poverty when it has various mineral resources which can bring in more wealth to the country. He said it is unacceptable that the place is rich in various minerals and yet its people are still living in poverty.

Tembo stated that commencement of the actual mining in the lower Zambezi which is expected to boost the country’s revenue collection as there will be more businesses opening in the area as opposed to what has been the case.

The lower Zambezi National park which was founded in 1983 and covers an area of over 4,000 square kilometres, lies on the north bank of the Zambezi River in south-eastern Zambia, is bringing out the old age debate between the huge profits to be gained from mining against the environmental considerations, which the tourism sector somehow managed to better take care off.

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FEIRA constituency Member of Parliament, Emmanuel Tembo says

Lifestyle

The paradox that the North Western Province finds itself in were the region is currently the biggest and perhaps the richest contributor to Zambia’s copper production and yet its infrustructure and levels of investments ploughed back into the region is paltry – seems to depict the very situation that Zambia at international level – as a country – finds itself in.

Permanent Secretary – PS for the North Western Province has regretted that the province has not seen much needed development despite the province having been blessed with so much mineral wealth and resources and currently being the hub of copper production in Zambia.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with the Zambian Business Times –ZBT – North Western Province Permanent Secretary Col Gladson Wishikoti Katambi said the province expects to be one of the most developed following the change of Government.

Katambi said the major contributing factor to the under development of the province is politics the way they are played. He lamented that North Western Province has always been regarded as the strong hold of the (UPND) ruling party, so now the situation has changed. He said most of the projects that were supposed to be given to the province failed because of politics.

Katambi said Government should look into the matter and ensure that projects such as building of a Public university in the province which has been a song for some time and there has not been any concrete indication that that is about to take off should be put as a priority.

“The talk has been there for so many years because in the early days of the late President Kenneth Kaunda – May his Soul rest in peace, I think the province was one of the first province to be considered to have a public university which was supposed to carter for agriculture and other related studies.”

“But then things did not go well hence ending up scraping off the plan and the money ended up in other provinces and since then, there has just been talks.” He said. Katambi noted that so far, there is no so of the needed much development that one can point out in the province despite having big mining companies in the province.

“Despite what the province contribute to the national treasury, there is nothing to point at. And if you come and look at Solwezi General Hospital which is in a poor state and yet the hospital is just situated 2 metres away from the main road the leads to Kansanshi mine were most of the copper is coming from.”

He stated that one wonders where the money has been going to when it was expected that some of the money generated is supposed to be shared among communities. “We hope that the government will be able to look at some of the projects that the province did not benefit so that the province can now develop under the new government.”

“We are not saying everything must come here, I think that would be unfair, all we are saying is that we lack in so many things not because there were no resources but now that there is new government we pray that what we contribute benefits our local community in the province.”

“Mind you, North Western contributes water to the turbines at Kafue and Kariba they use water from North Western and on top of that, the copper that has been talked about most of it come from this province.”

What is shocking is that North Western Province has also seen its border with the Democratic Republic of Congo – DRC at Kipushi not being developed despite it having a clear business case even under PPP. The road which is only about 100 kilometers but can deliver millions of dollars in revenue has also not been turned into bituminous standard.

North Western Province is home to Kasanshi mine, Kalumbila Trident Mine, Lumwana Mine and the recently announced USD1.3 billion Nickel mine. The province also has other small and medium scale mines and boasts of housing the source of one of Zambia’s largest river – Zambezi.

With the new policy where the president is saying let where those resources come from benefit first the communities of that area, I think that is a very good idea and something that will put the province at par. It remains to be seen if the UPND government negotiations with the large scale mine owners will be any better to deliver visible infrustructure and community development in the province.

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The paradox that the North Western Province

Agribusiness

Southern Africa Cross Border Traders Association-SACBTA says there is need for enough stakeholder consultations on the maize and mealie meal crisis in the country as there is a fear that Zambians would not afford the imported mealie meal and maize from South Africa as the commodity would be fetching beyond what is currently on the ground.

Other experts have hinted that the landing cost for imported mealie meal would be about over 50 percent higher than the home grown mealie meal as per 25 kilograms would cost about k340 within 21 days.

SACBTA Secretary General Jacob Makambwe said in an event where the private sector have enough capacity to get the country enough grain and can actually supply the mealie meal, government should give opportunity to the private sector to source for the maize and put it into production.

He said there is need for enough stakeholders consultations involved in making this particular thing work properly for the benefits of the Zambians as it might not be seen well to import when the private sector have the capacity to bridge this particular gap at the moment.

Zambian government has opted to import maize meal from South Africa in an effort aimed at countering the high cost of the staple diet and halting the food crisis in the country.

Makambwe questioned if the country has assessed the local capacity in terms of trying to address the challenges and also engaged enough stakeholders to ascertain this particular situation the country. for we believe that these particular issues are only going to be addressed when we get responses from enough stakeholders and if we have done enough engagements with the local capacities and the people that can do this to make mealie meal for the country?

Off course there are two aspects into this particular situation food security point of view where it is an emergence where there must be cushioning of the food in the security but have we also done an assessment if the mealie meal shortage is actually across the country? Have we also done enough assessments to see how much Food Reserve agency is still holding in terms of maize or if there is totally nothing that FRA is holding currently then why should we import finished products from other country to supplement what we don’t have?

This could also be an opportunity for the private sector engagement into businesses around supplying the commodity and actually get the row material to come and make the mealie meal and government’s role should be to regulate the entire process.

It does not make economic sense to export and later on import that’s why we are saying in the first place we could have looked at how to involve the private sector in buying of enough maize we were not going to have this maize shortage but now the private sector always export row maize.

Private sector plays a pivotal role in making sure that the supply and demands of goods and services are made available.

Mind you that we are getting this particular supply from South Africa and predominantly South Africa has genetically modified organism foods GMOs that we rejected some years back and now that we are going back and in terms of bio safety measures have we consulted enough that Zambians are going to take GMOs in terms of maize and even its adverse impact that it can actually have on their healthy over time if they are going to allow it?

It is some kind of where the government really need to introspect and bring in enough stakeholders to talk about these issues so that the country do not land itself in to a situation where certain business people take advantage because government said it will allow importation of maize.

There is also the issue of government going to assess quality and where exactly this maize meal is going to be coming from mind you that there are procedures and processes that government needs to put in place and ensure that compliance in terms of requirements SPSS and the content of this mealie meal that is going to come should also be determined around.

If the cost of processing mealie in South Africa it will be on the higher side because of these economic impact that we have and the private sector which is affected in South Africa, there is a fear that we could actually have this particular commodity fetching beyond what Zambians can afford.

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Southern Africa Cross Border Traders Association-SACBTA says

Lifestyle

Defence Minister Ambrose Lufuma says Government has not yet finalized the process of the Shortlisted defence force candidates for the 2022/2023 recruitment.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with the Zambian Business Times – ZBT, Lufuma said there has not been timeframe/date set for the releasing of the names of the qualified candidates adding that the selected applicants will only be published when all is finalized.

There has been demands on why Government has delayed to published the names of the shortlisted candidates. Minister of Defence Ambrose Lufuma had in January indicated that the names of the shortlisted candidates where to be published in the print media on February, 2023. He wrote, “Be informed that names of the shortlisted applicants who applied to join the defense force shall be published in the daily mall not later than 10th February 2023.”

Lufuma said in a statement on his social media adding that the shortlisted applicants where at the time undergoing security and verification of details.

When contacted for a comment on why the list had delayed, Lufuma said the list will only be published when it is ready and could however not mention what has caused the delay in as far as the releasing of names of the Shortlisted applicants is concerned.

Over 200, 000 Zambian individuals country wide had applied to join the Zambia National Service ZNS, Zambia Army and the Zambia Airforce ZAF against the available 5, 000 slots.

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Defence Minister Ambrose Lufuma says Government has not

Tech

The University of Zambia Student Union UNZASU has threaten that it will begin to take legal actions if the University Management continues leasing/selling off of more University/student land.

UNZASU President Chandra Choongo said the decision by management to lease/sell off more of the university land is a backward and bad decision because the true wealth of any institution or any person is in the land.

According to an invitation to submit expression of interest seen by the Zambian Business Times – ZBT, UNZA has put out for long term lease and development of over 6 hectares of its prime land south west of its Great East Road campus for long term lease and development to generate the much needed revenues.

UNZA has further put out another 8,000 square meters of its Marshlands village Great East Road frontage land for private development as well as another 33 hectares of its land between the Chinese built ZNS milling plant and the Chinese Memorial Park along Great East Road.

As if the above offloading of land is not enough, the UNZA management has further offered for long term lease about 15 hectares of its remainder of land at UNZA Nursery in Burkley.

 Speaking in an interview with the Zambian Business Times – ZBT – Choongo questioned management’s decision to lease/sell land when the institution is expected to develop the land especially that the institution has experts who are expected to advise management on better investments/projects that the land can be used on.

He said an institution like the University of Zambian should not be involved much on the side of selling considerable of the land because it has almost all qualified professionals in a number of faculties hence developing an investment in any land should not be an issue for a leading training institution like UNZA.

“In such cases like that you can sell the land and use the money but what happens when you are broke again? So the culture that UNZA has of selling off the university land is too backwards from my learning when the university by now is expected to have had developed mechanisms on how they are going to be using their land to generate the much needed revenue.”

“UNZA had about 10 farms in each province but they have been selling up to the extent where we are now and if this persist they will completely sell the whole UNZA land and the university will have no land for infrastructure development.” Remarked UNZASU President.

“Just like they have been selling at the main campus in Lusaka, we are now talking of sharing a corrido with east park and now talking about getting disturbed by the noise coming from bars at the mall which has the impact of changing the behaviour of the students in campus and at the end of the day increasing the number of students who are getting diseases.”

“The selling of land by the management is something that the union and the student populous is not in support of and if it persist even after engaging the management the Union will begin to take legal actions against the management.”

He said the university is losing more than it is gaining and in future there is a possibility of the university ending up without a land as the institution keeps on expanding.

We are talking of increasing the numbers of the lecture theatres, and other faculties that are required by the university of which the same land is supposed to be used so the impact is negative as the population is increasing and the institution is also likely to keep on increasing at the end of the day.

We are urging the university management to develop new mechanism on how to develop their own land and generate the needed revenue that will benefit both the students and the management.

Choongo said the Union was yet to meet and question management and we are yet to put a limit by saying that the land is student land and if that repeats itself we have to start suing the management.

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The University of Zambia Student Union UNZASU

Companies

True stone Mineral Processing Limited a chines owned manganese mining company in Mkushi’s Chalata area has diverted water from Kafwa Stream to wash manganese.

Green Economy and Environment Minister Eng Collins Nzovu said it is a source of concern that some mining companies in Mkushi District have continued polluting streams through tailings (mine waste) discharge, which is a violation of people’s rights to clean water and good health.

During spot inspections of manganese processing plants in the district, it was discovered that Truestone mining company in Chalata area had diverted water from Kafwa Stream for purposes of obtaining water to wash manganese. The water from the manganese wash plant finds its way back to the stream through tailings (mine waste) discharge.

Efforts to however get a comment from True stone Mineral Processing Limited proved futile by press time.

Eng Nzovu said in a statement made available to the Zambian Business Times –ZBT – that the manganese wash plant was found operating despite the plant being issued with an Environmental Protection Order in September 2022 by the Zambia Environmental Management Agency that ceased all operations at the manganese wash plant.

The Minister urged the local authorities through the District Commissioner’s office to collaborate with the Ministry to enhance efforts in ensuring compliance by the mining and processing plants as the pollution has the potential to harm the environment and human health of the local people.

“The Ministry would like to caution all the mining and processing plants to comply with the Environment Management Act No.12 of 2011 and would like to encourage ZEMA to continue conducting routine inspections to ensure compliance.”

Meanwhile, Nzovu has encouraged the culprits to emulate those that have complied with environmental regulations with respect to the Environmental Orders served on them and have put in place measures to mitigate pollution.

In separate interview with ZBT Mkushi District Commissioner Jonathan Kapungwe appealed to investors to always adhere and follow the law and ensure that the lives of people are protected at all costs. Kapungwe could however not confirm how many manganese mines are in the District and are complying with the environmental regulations.

The Commissioner however noted that most of the manganese mines are complying with Government regulation of protecting the environment by putting in place necessary mechanisms to reduce pollution in the district

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True stone Mineral Processing Limited a chines

Companies

Zambia’s railways have fallen on hard times.  Having transported virtually all Zambia’s international trade up to the 1970s, today less than 3.3 percent is transported by rail. 

The Railways Workers Union of Zambia RWUZ says Government should put in more effort and ensure that revamping of the railway sector in Zambia is actualized. RWUZ said, Government need to urgently recapitalize the sector to save a lot of money in terms of road infrastructure because by nature the rail company is meant to carry the heavy cargo and if the recapitalization is done and the Government take this as a priority the country shall develop economically and the rail sector shall really contribute to the GDP of this country because it will take a lot of load and cargo from the roads which are being pounded by the road trucks.

In an interview with the Zambian Business Times – ZBT – RWUZ Secretary General Simon Ngambi said it is evident that the railway sector has continued to underperform in a very bad way as it remains the least mode of transport among the effective modes when the reasons are obvious and clear.

According to Government official statistics the total value of Imports via all modes of transport for the period January to December 2022 was K152.6 billion. The road transport was the highest at K89.4 billion representing 58.6 percent share, followed by Air transport at K11.9 billion (7.8 percent) while Rail transport was third at K 2.1 billion accounting for 1.4 percent of the total import bill. Other modes of transport accounted for K49.2 billion (32.3 percent).

In terms of volumes, a total of 5.9 million Mt of imports was recorded for the period January to December 2022, of which Road transport accounted for 3.5 million Mt, representing the highest share at 59.2 percent, followed by Rail transport which accounted for 218.4 thousand Mt, representing a share of 3.7 percent. Air Transport was third accounting for 9.7 thousand Mt (0.2 percent), while other modes accounted for 2.2 million Mt (36.9 percent.

Ngambi said the current railway infrastructure in the country is dilapidated and even the type of equipment the rail sector is using particularly the Zambia railways is almost obsolete which has contributed to the underperforming of the sector in the country.

He said the union has been appealing to Government on several fora that the company need urgent recapitalization if it is to play a rightful role in the economy of this country as the logistic company.

Ngambi said without the recapitalization which is needed like yesterday it will be very difficult for the sector to perform their function in terms of the rail sector in the country.

“We are on record of saying the recapitalization and modernizing of the Zambia railways will have a lot of ripple effects as the benefits will be so immense to this country. The cost of doing business it will be low in terms of transport and generate a lot of employment in the sense that the rail sector is labor intensive when it comes to the rehabilitation of this important sector.”

He explained that 1 modernized locomotive called GT 36 has the capacity of carrying about 35 wagons of loaded cargo of coal or copper which may be equivalent to 40 trucks on the roads.

“So such kind of capacity if we are to capacitate Zambia Railways to that extent most of the cargo will go onto the rail in a bulk form which will be far much cheaper than using 40 trucks on the road.”

He said recapitalizing the sector shall as well mitigate some of the costs which is associated with high prices of fuel because by nature railways carry bulk cargo and is cheaper when compared to other effective modes of transport.  

Meanwhile, the total value of exports via all modes of transport for the period January to December 2022 was K197.1 billion. Road transport accounted for the highest at K98.7 billion representing 50.1 percent share. Rail transport was second at K3.8 billion (1.9 percent) and Air transport was third accounting for K2.8 billion (1.4 percent). Other modes of transport accounted for K91.7 billion (46.5 percent).

In terms of volume, the total volume of exports for the period January to December 2022 was 9.5 million Mt, of which Road transport accounted for 5.5 million Mt, representing 57.9 percent. Rail transport accounted for 49.8 thousand Mt, representing 0.5 percent, Air transport accounted for 4.2 thousand Mt (0.04 percent), while other modes accounted for 3.9 million Mt (41.5 percent).

RWUZ Secretary General remarked that in all developed countries the rail sector is playing a very imperative role in terms of transport and logistics and we have seen how such countries are actually benefiting from that particular transport sector.

“That is the only way we are going to mitigate some of the issues the country is facing by putting a lot of effort in revamping the railway sector. My appeal is to implore government to quickly address this issue although the political will is there we need more effort to ensure that these things are actualized.” Remarked Ngambi.

He said once this is actualized it will reap more benefits on both the cargo and transportation of passenger will be more effective. because of the challenges that are there the trains take a bit of transit time when it comes to travelling unto to Livingstone and when it is revamped the time will be reduced drastically and attract more passengers.

“Government should move in very quickly in terms of recapitalizing the Zambia airways it has been in Government now over a year and we need more action now on the way we are going to actualize the recapitalization and modernizing of Zambia airways.” He said.  

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Zambia’s railways have fallen on hard times. 

Mining

The unfavorable issues surrounding Konkola Copper Mines KCM and Mopani have triggered varying factors which has pushed down annual sulphiric acid production by 9%

Zambia’s annual sulphiric acid production has reduced from 2, 086 010 metric tons produced in 2021 to 1,907 194 metric tons produced in 2022.

Officials from the Ministry of Mines and Minerals development have attributed the decrease to low copper production at Mopani, Konkola Copper mine and also reduced copper productions at First Quantum Minerals’ Kansanshi copper mine due to low ore grades.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with the Zambian Business Times – ZBT – Chief Mining Engineer at the ministry of Mines, Willie Chilufya, explained that sulphuric acid is produced by Mopani, KCM and Kansanshi copper mines and these companies their production is very low and consequently the sulphuric acid production has been low as the material coming to the smelter is minimal.

Chilufya added that the production at the smelter for Kansanshi, KCM and Mopani is very low as the three are the major companies currently producing sulphuric acid in Zambia as it comes as a by-product from copper.

According to Government official mineral statistics from the ministry of Mines and minerals Development, 2022 sulphuric acid annual production has dropped 178 816 metric tons.

This represents a 9% decrease in sulphuric acid production when compared to 1907194 metric tons produced in 2021.

“First of whole we concentrate on minerals and we don’t concentrate on by-products like sulphiric acid. Sulphiric acid even the mines don’t bother because their line of business is to produce copper and so the decrease in production is attributed to the low copper production at the mines indicated above.” Chilufya said.

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The unfavorable issues surrounding Konkola Copper Mines

Mining

GoviEx Uranium, the developers of Muntanga Uranium mining project, has indicated that it is scheduled to produce approximately 2.5 million lbs of U3O8 at its Mutanga Project per annum for 11 years after commencement of productions in 2027. The Company however said this is subject to change after the publication of its Feasibility Study.

GoviEx Uranium Inc. Head of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications, Isabel Vilela exclusively told the Zambian Business Times – ZBT – that since its discovery, over $50m has been invested by the predecessors and GoviEX into the Muntanga project.

She said the expected capital investment for the development of this project is currently US$123 million adding that the major challenge when it comes to actualizing this project has been the sharp decline in uranium prices post Fukushima nuclear incident which happened in 2011 in Japan.

She explained that the Muntanga project was permitted in 2010, just before uranium prices collapsed to $16/lb, below the industry cost of production following the Fukushima nuclear incident in Japan in 2011 adding that GoviEx, only acquired the project at the end of 2016, when uranium prices were still below the industry cost of production.  

She stated that Uranium prices have slowly recovered and only now are starting to reach more sustainable long term price levels required to justify new project development. “We have been advancing the project in anticipation of improving uranium market fundamentals, and accelerated this work in the past two years.”

“The Muntanga site has seen an ambitious field program which included 15,500 meters of infill drilling last year, and the start of the updating of the bankable feasibility study due to be completed in early 2024.” she said.

Vilela said construction of Muntanga Uranium mine will start once the Bankable Feasibility study is completed in 2024 and the with the first uranium production targeted for 2027/2028.

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GoviEx Uranium, the developers of Muntanga Uranium

Tech

The Energy Expert has challenged Government to step up and invest in its resources through the production and manufacturing of solar cells and panels which could be an excellent step towards reducing dependence on non-renewable energy sources.

Energy Expert Engineer Borniface Zulu told the Zambian Business Times – ZBT – that the high-quality silica sand found in some parts of the country has the potential to contribute significantly to the growth of the Zambian economy, making it an important contributor to the country’s industrial sector and to become a leader in solar power production and manufacturing.

He said the abundance of sunshine, coupled with the availability of raw material and favourable economic policies, makes the country an attractive destination for investors keen on the solar industry.

Zulu said Zambia has abundant natural resources to produce renewable energy in the form of solar power as the country is blessed with abundant sunshine throughout the year receiving an average of 8-10 hours of sunshine per day approximately 3,960 hours of sunlight annually.

He explained that the provinces of Zambia that are considered ideal for setting up solar projects are located in the southern and western parts of the country, including Southern, Western, Eastern and part of Copperbelt provinces.

“These areas receive the highest amount of sunshine throughout the year and are not affected by heavy cloud cover or rainfall, and harnessing this power through the production and manufacturing of solar cells and panels could be an excellent step towards reducing dependence on non-renewable energy sources.”

He said the benefits of producing and manufacturing solar cells and panels in Zambia are numerous as solar power is a clean and renewable source of energy, making it a perfect fit for Zambia’s economic development vision, namely ‘beyond the current business as usual approach towards a resource-efficient green economy. Zulu added that this will also provide jobs and contribute to the growth of the manufacturing sector in Zambia and also enhance energy resilience, lowers energy costs, and reduces greenhouse gas emissions.

He noted that Zambia has also an abundance of Silica sand which is one of the essential raw materials required for the production of solar cells.

“According to the Geological Survey Department of Zambia, high-quality silica sand is found in various regions, including Chipata, Chongwe, Chama, Mumbwa, and Kafue among others. However, Kafue district in Lusaka Province is recognized as the best location for silica sand due to its high purity levels but of course Zambia has vast deposits of silica sand, and the quality of the sand varies depending on the location. Regions such as Luapula, Eastern, Southern, Copperbelt, and Northwestern are known for having high-quality silica sand too, and the sand from these regions is used in a variety of industrial applications.” He explained.  

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The Energy Expert has challenged Government to