Zambia’s Mining Sector Still Underperforming 60 Years After Independence

Zambians for Unity, Peace and Development (ZUPED) says the country’s mining sector has underperformed in the last 60 years due to lack of proper exploitation of available mineral resources.

Speaking in an interview with Money FM News, Organization President Ronnie Jere noted that the sector’s performance has been going down over the years, and the situation was worse in the recent past after strategic mines like Mopani and Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) stopped operating.

Mr. Jere believes that the sector’s performance will improve in the next few years as strategic mines such as Mopani, KCM and First Quantum Minerals (FQM) are being revived.

He added that the reported 96 percent reduction in production by KCM from January to August 2024, is a source of concern, but has expressed confidence the situation will improve now that Vedanta Resources has taken over mining operations.

“As strategic mines such as Mopani and Konkola Copper Mines including First Quantum Minerals are being revived, we hope to see an improvement in the mining sector in the next 20 or 30 years to come.”
“I was just reading one of the blogs, unfortunately KCM has reduced production by 96 percent from January to August 2024 and that is a source of concern. We are very optimistic that Vedanta, having taken over KCM, production will increase going forward,” Mr. Jere stated.

With regards to Mopani Copper Mines, Mr. Jere is of the view that the investors are still setting up and getting into production at a very lower level, with production expected to improve in the next 5 to 6 years because Mining is very capital intensive, and requires a lot of money.

“We are sure that what has been promised to be invested like US$1.2 billion into KCM will be pumped in, in the next few years to come so that production of copper is ramped up. We also have Gemstones which are unfortunately not being exploited properly. We have gold in some pockets of our country but it is not being utilized to benefit the nation.”

“So generally, I think Zambia has not performed as it is supposed to perform, by this time we would have been doing the mining ourselves and not just depend on investors. We would have had a very proper way on how we could benefit as a country from our mineral resources but at the moment unfortunately, even the so called royalties are not getting to the national purse. We are not seeing the trickling down of income gotten from the mines into our national reserves,” he noted.

Mr. Jere stated that if the mining sector was in the hands of Zambians, the country would not have been talking about borrowing too much, because it would have just been using resources from the mines to build schools and hospitals.

“We have so much money that could develop this country within a few years and we would be one of the best economies in the world, but the lack of seriousness by our politicians, selfishness, wanting to get resources to themselves is what has caused Zambia over the last 60 years to be what it is,” Mr. Jere added.

Meanwhile, Mine Expert Danny Mwila, also said in an interview that Zambia’s mining has remained underdeveloped because income generated from the mines is externalized by the foreign investors while the country only benefits from leftovers.

Mr. Mwila noted that 60 years after Independence, there is no large mining company that is 100 percent owned and run by Zambians.

He stressed the for more efforts in order to grow the sector into a resilient benchmark for the country’s economy.