Copperbelt Province Minister Elisha Matambo says one of the major reasons Zambia’s mining industry is doing poorly is because most of the mines operating in the country had stopped mine development and were on their way out.
He said consequently, production output fell drastically because “what they should have mined then is what we should have been selling now.”
Matambo explained that when the UPND took over the government, mining giants, including First Quantum Minerals and Lumwana in North-Western Province, were on their way out of the country.
“FQM had problems with the government, they were in court. The environment in which the mines were operating was not conducive, so most of them decided to close and leave. Since some mining giants were about to leave, they stopped doing their mining development, meaning what we should have been selling now should have been produced or done that period when they stopped,” he said.
Matambo added that the miners’ decision to leave the country due to soured relations with the previous government incapacitated the country’s mining sector even further as critical mining development was halted.
He said this has had a profound impact on the country’s economy, including the exchange rate because it’s a chain reaction.
“We should understand that the main engine, which gives us the much-needed forex to strengthen our economy, is copper. But the mining industry was upside down. As a result, there was nothing to feed the Kwacha so that it could remain strong. Hence, where we are today,” he said in reference to the ever-fluctuating and weakened local currency.
He praised the UPND government for successfully resuscitating the mining sector, which had collapsed during the previous PF regime.
“We found the mining sector in the Copperbelt Province, and the country as a whole, in the Intensive Care Unit, and some of the mines actually buried in the graveyard. It has not been easy to unlock the mining sector, which includes KCM,” Matambo said.
He said that in President Hichilema’s vision to restore the mining sector to its standing, his resolve to settle all the outstanding legal matters between the government and investors amicably and outside court through dialogue as well as negotiation had started bearing fruits as the President believes that we cannot mine in the courts.
He stated that resulting from these efforts, mining companies that were headed for the exit door are now investing more than US$2 billion in the country.
Matambo said, similarly, it was the government’s desire that by the end of June, all the niggling legal matters regarding KCM would come to an end so that the mine could also come back to its feet.
On the generally held fears that KCM under Vedanta would once again play truant and repeat its behaviors of old, Matambo said under President Hichilema’s watch, Vedanta would fulfill every promise made.
Casting his eyes back to late President Mwanawasa’s time, Matambo said Vedanta had behaved very differently then, as they would now behave.
“The Vedanta under PF was not the same as the Vedanta under President Mwanawasa and will be different under President Hichilema,” he assured.
He enthused that under President Hichilema, the Copperbelt will never be the same again and that “we will go back to the days of old where our children from CBU will be employed before they finish school because there will be mining going on all over the province.”
Matambo also indicated that a commission was being put in place to, among other things, safeguard the interests of Zambians and ensure that they benefit sufficiently from their mineral wealth.
Matambo was the main speaker at a Public Discussion Forum hosted by the News Diggers newspaper discussing unlocking KCM and the mining sector at Kitwe’s Garden Court Hotel Monday night.
