A Non Governmental Organisation has advised the Patriotic Front Government to consider setting up a national copper refinery plant to maximize the income from the product.
Development Partnership International country Director Richard Musauka said in a statement in Lusaka yesterday that that once a copper refinery was established, investors could be taxed on refined copper products thereby address the taxation issues with mining companies.
Mr Musauka said the country was losing a lot of money as the by product that comes out of the refined copper is not accounted for.
“Once the copper refinery plant is setup, the by product can then be used in Zambia to boost the manufacturing sector, to develop industries across the country and to create the desperately needed jobs by our unemployed youths,” he said.
He said it was unfortunate that the majority of Zambians had remained poor even when the country was the major copper producer in the world.
“The country has failed to make use of the natural wealth properly. We need to begin to understand the secretly held by investors before the come to invest,” he said.
He said Zambia needed revenue from the mines to develop other sectors such as infrastructure, health, tourism, industrialisation and rural
development. He said the mining sector was still the lifeblood of the Zambian economy though Zambians had not fully benefited from the sector.
Magande questions Chikwanda’s windfall tax reaction
By Gift Chanda : Fri 23 Mar. 2012,
IT is ironic for finance minister Alexander Chikwanda to call his colleagues in the Patriotic Front lunatics for advocating the reintroduction of 25 per cent windfall tax on base metals, says Ng’andu Magande.
And Magande, the longest serving finance minister in the MMD government, has challenged the PF government to give a proper policy direction for the country.
In an interview, Magande, who is National Movement for Progress president, said it is surprising that Chikwanda could label windfall tax advocates ‘lunatics’ when the PF was propped into power by promises of reintroducing that tax.
So govt does not know this? How come Botswana has a plant to process its diamonds but we are not able to have a copper plant?
The Botswana Government does not have a plant to process diamonds. This is done by investors who have been given investment licenses to do so. Debswana does sort diamonds but does not process them.
Before you advise government research my friend.What copper refinery are you talking about? is it the electro refining of copper anode to copper cathode? If that is the case then government should start buying copper anode or set up their own smelter to process concentrate on off take contracts.If it is the electro winning refinery, then government should set up a leaching plant so that they process leached copper into copper cathode.In electro refining of copper anode you get a by product called slimes which contain precious metals especially gold and PGMs.All this plants require capital investment.So in my view you are confusing secondary processing industries to primary processing industries.I hope you talking about process copper into other products or making alloys.
“It would be interesting to get a quotation of what President Sata said in Mongu or what he said in Livingstone or Kalulushi and say while the Minister of Finance is saying the people advocating for windfall tax are lunatics, his own party when they had a big mass rally at Mandevu. This is what either Mr Vice-President Scott said or what Mr Shamenda said or what Mr Kambwili said,” he said.
“Mr Chikwanda never addressed a single mass rally so is he calling his friends that were saying ‘we should reintroduce windfall tax’ lunatics?”
Magande said some PF officials continued to advocate windfall taxes even after the party won last year’s elections.
I thought we had a copper refinery in Ndola.what happened to it
“The former Minister of Mines Hon Simuusa has been going around and has been telling the people, even in Parliament, they issued a statement that they are going to reintroduce a windfall tax, so is he Chikwanda calling his own colleagues in PF lunatics?” Magande questioned.
“I am the one who introduced windfall tax in 2008 and I am sure everyone knew my position on this issue.”
He said it was ironic for Chikwanda to start calling names people advocating windfall tax when his party pressured late president Levy Mwanawasa to introduce the windfall tax.
The Ndola Copper Refinery (NCR) together with the Precious Metal Plant (PMP) were sold by MMD to Binani who just looted and stripped down the two plants and shared the spoils with MMD govt.
We are the only country on earth with very poor citizens that are sitting on wealth/riches.
Zambia currently has two electro copper refineries in Mufulira and Nkana and one electro winning plant at Nchanga. What kind of refinery does this director want the the govt to put up?
are those refinery owned by the State or by private companies. I bet it’s not enough boast about having 3 rifineries in Zambia when they’re not in Zambians’ hands….. Mwalya Mweka Dora + privatization = High poverty levels in Zed starting with the areas where mines are located then to the rest of the country….
“These people were actually pushing president Mwanawasa and the minister of finance then to introduce windfall tax. Even in campaigns, they campaigned on the basis of reintroducing this tax and people voted for them,” he said.
“I would really say that is not very civil language to call other people lunatics,” Magande said. ” In due corse we will see who the lunatics are when they fail to fulfill what they promised.”
An NGO advises government to set up a copper refinery to help move on, at #5 a reminder of once existent such infrastructure and needing clarification yet at #3 we are drawn back with academic brilliance!
As i have said it before,only if the export of Zambian raw copper is halted shall we see more employment,more job creation,more road and rail infrustracture and other development shall take place in our country,since we shall be able to refine our own copper and only export the by prosucts of it,which shall see as with more forex,this is the secret of the investors,because they gain double on our copper,it’s time we earned our reputation as a nation.wake up PF go ahead and implement this logical issue,this is a brilliant idea which does not need to think twice.bravo P.F.i trust you…
I think people confusing the issue of refining and manufacturing. Zambia currently refines most its copper locally. What is lacking is transforming refined copper into finished products.Currently only a few tonnes of refined copper are made into cables by ZAMEFA in Luanshay. At the moment I dont think Zambia has a manufacturing base which can consume all the copper it produces.
I think this discussion makes alot of sense and i agree with ”The Punisher”- (who do you punish by the way, women?). If we stock piled most of the refined copper, we would be force to innovate manufacturing of various items. Look at the guys who make crafts from copper, they cost quite a while. now imagine fro a tonne of copeer. What about scientifically based approaches lookig at the chemical and physical properties of copper……!!!
Which dull NGO was this?? When ever there is a smelter, a refinery is just next door and we sell finished copper(refined copper) to the international market. Perhaps they meant a state owned refinery otherwise this is bull crap
He was talking of setting up something in zamefa making which can process copper cathode into finished products like electric wires,cables etc
UNIVERSITY of Zambia (UNZA) economics lecturer Dr Mathias Mphande has said it is foolish for government to postpone the development of the country by not properly taxing the mining industry.
Dr Mphande dismissed the minister’s fears that mines would close if government re-introduced windfall tax. He said no country behaves the way Zambia was behaving observing that even DR Congo that was more chaotic than Zambia taxed its mining industry better. “Other than incompetence they just (government) don’t know the importance of taxation to development and in relation to poverty reduction-that’s all. They really don’t care for Zambia, they care for their Chinese, Indians and foreign investors-they don’t like Zambians. They are not working in the interest of the country for sure,”
Where is Professor Chirwa?
Let us embrace good thoughts and ideas yes zambians need to wakeup from the slumber and think outside the box zambia belongs to us all
There is no need for GRZ to set up copper processing facilities. that is for the private sector who in turn can create quality jobs. Dr Mphande is a mining engineer, not an economist as someone seems to suggest. The mining copper environment in DRC compared to ours because their ore reserves have a higher copper content than ours which is less cheaper to process. Our mines are old and therefore mining the ore is expense and to attract investment, generous capital allowances offered on mining equipment and therefore taxable profits are lower.
The only problem is mismanagement (cha Boma). The refinery will be full of party carders
Extraction Engineer #3, I am impressed with your knowledge regarding copper refinery technologies.
The country needs your skills and knowledge if the nation has to develop to an appreciable level.
The question is how do we proceed?
My suggestion is that as a nation we must establish a national development fund account in USDollar.
For this effort to be meaningful, a minimum of say US$1000 be required from the participants.
The people that contribute to this fund ultimately become Board of Directors.
This fund will be used to establish developmental entities such as this one under discussion.
In the event that additional funding for the envisaged project is needed, other sources such
as banks or government can be approached for assistance.
As we move forward discussing these issues,
let’s focus on solutions. Like I have said all along, it is us zambians that will develop the
country and not foreigners. To those that just want to critize without providing attainable solutions,
don’t participate in the debates or motion submissions.
commenting on the the same, I would like to say that , let the market decide what they want. If the proposed refinery is meant to produce for the local market, then it is welcome. But if the targeted market is abroad, then continue the way it is. It is common knowldge that Zambian products are of inferior quality.
Maybe we shopuld also try another, were all millers should start supplying already cooked Nshima direct to the people. Suppose I need corn flakes or Amashola.
The only thing is to put whatever income we get on copper to proper use. LWENU.
Guys Guys i have said it before and i will say it again! the money earned from all the copper we produce in a year in Zed is not enough to make too much of a difference to the welfare of 13million people. We only earn 6-10billion US$ annually from copper sales. That’s including running costs, profits, Taxes etc. So even if GRZ got all the profits from copper and investors got nothing the money would only be a drop in the ocean. The answer lies in diversification of the economy.
Pa Zed you are S.T.U.P,I.D.!!! Dont you know that the mines only contribute 2% revenue to GRZ coffers. What is wrong in increasing this? Are yopu also saying that what all workers contribuute in taxes is relatively meagre, so we should all stop paying taxes? Dont you know that even to diversify you need money???? Are you saying you I.D.I.O.T that we should borrow in order to diversify???