THE MINERAL INDUSTRY OF ZAMBIA By George J. Coakley Zambia is a landlocked country, is bordered by seven southern at attracting risk capital, technology, and entrepreneurial African neighbors, has an area of 752,614 square kilometers, efforts to the mining sector. This Act officially put in place and in 2003, had a population of 10.4 million. For 2003, the a mineral policy that called for a privatization program to per capita gross domestic product (GDP) based on purchasing encourage private development and diversification of the power parity was estimated to be $800.1 During 2003, the mining sector. It committed the Government to the promotion economy had a GDP real growth rate of 4.0%, and inflation of small-scale mining; to the development of gemstone mining increased to 21.4% by yearend from 16% in 2002. Mining and liberalization of gemstone marketing facilities; to the and quarrying accounted for 2.8% of the GDP at current prices diversification of mining through development of industrial, in 2003; mine expansions and startups increased employment ferrous, and energy minerals; to the reduction of ecological to 53,900 compared with 39,900 in 2002. In 2003, the damage arising from mining; and to the promotion of local International Monetary Fund reported total merchandise exports value-added processing of Zambia’s mineral raw materials. The to be $1.1 billion, of which copper exports were valued at $601 law covers all mineral commodities and treats large-scale, small- million and cobalt, at $109 million compared with $510 million scale, and gemstone operations separately as to mineral rights and $50 million, respectively, in 2002. Metal sector imports (prospecting and mining authorizations). Export of radioactive accounted for about 15% of total merchandise imports of minerals, such as monazite, is illegal without special Ministerial almost $1.4 billion (U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, 2003§2; approval. The law also gives the Government leeway in International Monetary Fund, 2004§). The mining sector was negotiating individualized contracts with investors. Among dominated by copper and cobalt production. Zambia ranked other provisions are secure title to mining rights with provision 2d in the world as a producer of cobalt and 11th for copper and to assign the right to other parties and to market products, was one of the top producers of gem-quality emerald in 2003. international arbitration, exemption from import duties and sales Gemstones, mostly emerald, also recorded significant earnings; taxes on material at least for an initial period of exploration and an even larger amount may have bypassed official channels. development, and royalty charges of 3% for large-scale mining Besides copper and cobalt, Zambia produced a variety of license holders on the “net back value” of minerals free-on- industrial mineral commodities and coal. The most recent board less transport and smelting and refining costs. mineral production statistics are listed in table 1. By 2000, privatization of most of the major mines had been completed, although the Government faced investment reversals Government Policies and Programs in 2002 with the Baluba-Luanshya and the Konkola Mines and had to reopen them for new privatization bids. Efforts were The Investment Act of 1993 established the Zambia ongoing to privatize coal, limestone, gemstones, and other Investment Center as a one-stop support facility for investors small-scale mining and to attract foreign investors to develop and offers incentives to investors in the mining sector. The other known industrial and metallic mineral resources. Act, as amended in 1996, regulates, for example, investment incentives and investment guarantees. Investment is protected Environmental Issues by the Securities Act (for the stock exchange) and the Investment Act against compulsory acquisition. No investment Parliament’s Environmental Protection and Pollution Control can be expropriated unless Parliament has passed an act that Act (No. 12) of 1990 is the basis for the formation of the relates to the compulsory acquisition of that property. In the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources and also the event of expropriation, the 1993 Investment Act, as amended, Environmental Council of Zambia. The Act, which formally guarantees full compensation at market value and free transfer came into full force in February 1992, gives the Ministry overall of the funds in the currency in which the investment was made. responsibility for protecting the environment. In March 1997, In December 1994, the Government announced that it would no the Mines and Minerals (Environmental) Regulations were longer participate in exploration or become a shareholder in a passed to implement environmental protection provisions of mining company and would limit its functions to regulatory or the Mines and Minerals Act of 1995. The 1997 environmental promotional activities. legislation established an environmental protection fund and The approval of the Companies Act by Parliament in 1994 regulations for environmental impact assessments, mine dumps, brought Zambia’s company law in line with modern British air and water quality, and emissions. company law. The subsequent passing of the Mines and Minerals Act (No. 31) on September 13, 1995, was aimed Commodity Review 1Where necessary, values have been converted from Zambian kwacha Metals (K) to U.S. dollars (US$) at the rate of K4,734=US$1.00 for 2003 and K4,307=US$1.00 for 2002. Cobalt and Copper.—Following the January 2002 2References that include a section mark (§) are found in the Internet announcement of Anglo American plc that it would write off References Cited section. ZAMBIA—2003 33.1 $350 million in Zambian assets and withdraw from Zambia, Unlike KCM and Mopani, which were rehabilitating existing state-owned Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines Ltd. (ZCCM) operations, First Quantum Minerals Ltd. of Canada was placed Konkola Copper Mines plc (KCM) back on the focusing on greenfield project developments to establish its privatization bid market; Anglo American owned KCM (Anglo position as a major mining company in the Copperbelt. First American plc 2002a§, b§). In May 2003, the Government Quantum was using its Bwana Mkubwa solvent extraction- chose Sterlite Industries Ltd., which was an Indian aluminum, electrowinning (SX-EW) plant near Ndola to process ore from copper, and zinc producer, as the winning bidder to acquire a its Lonshi Mine, which is located 36 kilometers (km) across 51% interest in KCM from a shortlist of four companies; the the border in the Democratic Republic of the Congo [Congo others were Glencore International AG of Switzerland, Metorex (Kinshasa)]. In 2003, the company announced its decision Ltd. of South Africa, and a consortium of Mitsui & Co. Ltd. to develop the Kansanshi copper deposit near Solwezi. First and Mitsubishi Corp. from Japan. By yearend, however, final Quantum was successfully drilling a new copper-cobalt agreement on the terms of the Sterlite takeover of KCM, which discovery at Lufua, which is located just north of Lonshi, that included tax concessions, was still pending. In December 2003, could provide additional feed to the Bwana Mkubwa plant. In Vedanta Resources plc, which was the new holding company May, it had an option agreement exercised by BHP Billiton for Sterlite, was listed on the London Stock Exchange. Vedanta Ltd. to acquire a 51% interest in First Quantum’s Lumwata and raised $823 million dollars in new equity capital and by January Mwinilunga prospecting licenses on the western extension of had acquired a 65.8% controlling interest in Sterlite Industries the Lufilian Arc into western Zambia on the border with Angola; (Datamonitor, 2004§). the Lufilian Arc is the regional geologic structural feature that Pending its sale, KCM continued to be operated by Zambia hosts most of the sediment-hosted stratiform copper deposits in Copper Investments Limited (ZCI) [a subsidiary of Anglo the Copperbelt of Congo (Kinshasa) and Zambia. American (58%) and ZCCM-Investment Holdings (ZCCM-IH) During 2003, First Quantum processed 722,065 t of ore (42%)]. During 2003, KCM exercised its option to acquire the from Lonshi, which contained an average of 4.8% copper, at Nkana copper smelter from ZCCM Smelterco Ltd. in exchange its Bwana Mkubwa SX-EW plant; the ore yielded 29,513 t of for $7 million in KCM shares to the Government. In 2003, refined cathode copper compared with 11,878 t in 2002. The KCM produced 188,000 metric tons (t) of refined copper and Bwana Mkubwa operation also produced 132,951 t of sulfuric 1,200 t of refined cobalt compared with 220,000 t of copper acid; the surplus (75,228 t) was sold to other Copperbelt and 2,000 t of cobalt in 2002. The drop in production was operators (First Quantum Minerals Ltd., 2004b§). attributed by ZCI to “the planned downscaling of operations During 2003, First Quantum secured most of the capital at the Nchanga open pit, the partial shutdown of the Nkana commitment needed to begin development of the $224 million smelter for modernization work, the local fuel crisis and an Kansanshi copper project. Construction began in September, acute shortage of acid supplies” (Zambia Copper Investments and by February 2004, 95% of the engineering and design Limited, 2004, p. 2). The smelter modernization project was aspects of the project was completed. Commissioning completed in September, and operation of the new counter- of Phase I of the project was expected by late 2004. The current decantation (CCD) circuit at the Nchanga tailings leach Kansanshi project was based on a measured, indicated, and plant began in November. The new CCD circuit was expected inferred mineral resource that was based on a 0.5% copper to increase copper recovery by 7%. KCM planned to invest $15 cutoff grade of 301.8 Mt at average grades of 1.17% copper million during 2004 to build a sulfur-burning plant at Nkana and and 0.17 gram per metric ton (g/t) gold, which contained to reexamine the resource estimates needed to extend the life 3.54 Mt of copper and 51.1 t of gold.