Vedanta Resources, the parent company for Konkola Copper Mines says it has been a loyal investor in KCM and in Zambia having invested over US$3 billion since the acquisition of the asset in 2004.
In its latest statement released by its Communications Office in London, Vedanta says its aware of media reports that Zambian state owned company, ZCCM-IH, has obtained an ex-parte order against KCM.
ZCCM-IH owns 20.6% of KCM and has its nominees on the company’s board.
It reiterated its request for an immediate and urgent meeting with President Edgar Lungu to discuss the matter.
“Vedanta is a long-standing, loyal investor in KCM and in Zambia having invested over US$3 billion since the acquisition of the asset in 2004. The company employs nearly 13,000 people at its sites and operates clinics, hospitals and schools through its corporate social responsibility programme that amounts to over US$210 million since the acquisition,” it said.
It stated that KCM has contributed US$1.3 billion to the Zambian Exchequer in that period and continues to be the leading Pay As You Earn contributor in the country.
“For the year ended 31 March 2019, Vedanta provided KCM with financial support (including funding of loan repayments) of US$419 million. These significant financial and social investments combined with exponential rises in taxes, duties, fuel and power costs have placed an enormous and unaffordable burden on the company,” it said.
It said the most recent restrictions and duty on concentrates have negatively impacted the running of the smelter and the much-needed acid to run its operations.
“In addition, the Zambian government owes the company more than US$180 million in VAT refunds which has made the situation even more challenging.”
The company said it is seeking to meet with the Government as a matter of urgency to discuss the future of KCM and the impact that the current onerous situation is having on the company, the people of the Copperbelt and the Zambian people as a whole.
“Since 2004, KCM has invested more than $3 billion to upgrade and expand company assets. Today it is of the largest private sector employers in the country and maintains one of the most comprehensive corporate social investment programmes.”
Tiyeni uko! That’s how mum would dismiss nonsensical things
“kanyeleni uko” that’s hoe my mom would normally respond to drivel like this from KCM
What we are witnessing now are the ‘fruits’ of lack of vision or the lack of fruits of a scenario devoid of vison. Well done Lungu you have lived up to your word. I personally would not blame you for doing what you said you would do or would not do. You are one hell of a honest politician from start to finish. More should emulate your gallant leadership, doing exactly what you said you would or wouldn’t do.
Vedanta must go. We are all agreed on that. It’s just sad that Mr. Lungu and friends are only seeing how they can make money for themselves out of this. This is clear from the people appointed to supervise the process. No experts, no technocrats, no consultants. Just Kaiser, Amos, Sikazwe, etc.
The only winner in all this is Lungu and his crew.
Anil Agarwal is just trying to save their international reputation otherwise they have no genuine interest on kcm plc.
So let Zambia pay back to Vedatta $3 billion in next 15 years.
This case will cost Edgar his re-election, let HH stay away please. HH should let Edgar vs Kambwili over KCM.
“Katumpileni ukutali” is how mum would respond to this Vedanta nonsense.
“Ifyabupuba!” that’s how mum would respond to meaningless chatter and drivel that resembled outright stupidity.
Edgar Lungu stand your grounds.
1. These guys have deliberately polluted our rivers with toxic chemicals, which has killing our people.
2. They have cooked books for a long time
3. Their chairman on record had boasted to have made so much money at the expense of screwing Zambia in Taxes. He bragged about getting away with it.
3. We have a case in UK Courts against them for polluting our water. In any other country they would be paying $ Billions of Dollars compensating to our people.
4. If they sue Zambia, we have a lot that we can counter sue back on them. Actually they are scared.
After KK introduced Zambianisation, British, German, American expatriates left Zambia in the late 70’s and early 80’s.
ZCCM was then run by qualified Zambian:
1.Mining Engineers
2.Civil Engineers
3.Mechanical Engineers
4.Qualified Management Professionals
5.ACCA Financial Professionals
6.Qualified Doctors who run Mining 7.Hospitals
8.Qualified Surveyors
9. And the list goes on and on….
Until when FTJ Chiluba was # bullied and # duped by the IMF to sell the copper mined.
No doubt it became a loss making sector and GRZ was pumping half a $ million dollars a day to sustain it, after copper prices slapped down.
All they needed was to # Restructure and trim it down. And not sell it at peanuts.
“Kapenene uko” is what my mum would say … epo mpelele,
BRM
They insist on meaning the Head of State as they have no confidence in his so called “high powered delegation” of dullards….we docile Zambians have given our Presidents so much power I mean if he wanted he could handpicked his whole family if he wanted as none of those people in that delegation have ever handled anything like this.
Who is paying the $250 million legal fees to that PF cadres the Liquidator Lungu.
Jay who ever you are?? I fill pity of you not having curtsey for your country!! Or is it that your mind is glued to hate or oppose what ever ECL does? By the way Zambia is rich in minerals of which you know! All we need is to put our heads together to contribute towards the way forward to better our economy as you know England wants a Brexit, America first as Trump say, Chinese Yen be on world market as US Dollar and many more. So plse read the Bible these are the End times where no stone shall be on top of the other. The kings of the East are here, epompelele….!!!!!!
Not only do they want to meet, but also to bring akasaka knowing the insatiable appetite of the people they will meet to become more and more rich. Just wait and see how things will change in a twinkling of an eye.
“kanyeleni uko” that’s how my mom would normally respond to drivel like this from KCM
I support the Government on this matter. If it means closing the Mine altogether and leave it for the future generations of Zambians to come and run it themselves without the need for any foreigners. We have failed to manage the mining sector. So let us not spoil it for our children who might have a sensible approach.
Supporting the looting of assets by a bunch of thieves with a track record of plundering even a poor man’s hard earned investment in the name of the Post?
Just leave us in peace
Am sure this greedy Indian investor invested US$3billion into his toilet and not in KCM!!!This useless Indian man has destroyed life in Chingola and Chililabombwe.There is nothing to talk about in those two towns.Even the two KCM sponsored football teams;Konkola Blades and Nchanga Rangers are done and dusted(finished 100%).PRESIDENT EDGAR LUNGU SHOULD NEVER ACCEPT ANY LIES FROM KCM OWNERS BECAUSE IF HE DOES THAT,THEN HE SHOULD AS WELL FORGET ABOUT WINNING IN COPPERBELT IN 2021.If it was Mopani owners,maybe one can try to listen to them but not those useless Indians running KCM.Miners are very happy now that KCM is no more in Zambia!!!GRABBING KCM FROM THAT INDIAN IS THE BEST DECISION EVER MADE BY PRESIDENT EDGAR LUNGU AND IT WILL HELP HIM GREATLY TO RETAIN POWER IN 2021-MARK MY WORDS!!!
You should have grabbed this mine long ago but you continued to eat together with An*l Agarwal even rolling out red carpet for him… today you are broke that’s when you wake up from your folly….I mean Agarwal couldn’t raise $25 million 30 years ago today he has a networth of $3.5 Billion.
No one disagrees with getting KCM back due to under performance but what we disagree with is that delegation why would you place your Spokesman on that delegation, your Political Adviser, your Economic Adviser when you have a Cabinet Minister present..the late Mike Mulongoti was right about Lazy Lungu needing an urgent medical review to ascertain his mentality….the man we have in State House is sick in the head I tell you. Its not laughable anymore!!!!
@6 Njimbu,I can see you really want Lungu to continue messing up this country! This is a guy who went on holiday on day one of assuming office,otherwise KCM should have been kicked out a long time ago before we became too indebted and before KCM inflicted more damage – but NO,THEY WERE DINNING WITH LUNGU,THAT IS WHERE HE ( THE PRESIDENT) WAS RECEIVING PROMISES OF MORE INVESTMENT WITHOUT LEGAL COMMITMENT and yet the President is a lawyer! All well meaning Zambians are wishing Mr.Lungu a good retirement in 2021,and it will happen! Bye,bye…
It is our foolishness to let them pollute Kafue river and not develop the mine for more 10 years when you have ZCCM-HI representative as part of the top executive inclusive the minister of mines. Why blame the Indians for buying a mine for $25 million at a will of our leaders decision? The government has support from the people, but what do expect from Mr. Musukwa, Mrs. Nonde, Mr. Chanda and Mr. Zulu who are not specialists in mining business. US$180 million owing by Gov to KCM; the handling of this case is not smart by the Gov. Acting with tantrums will make us enable KCM be compensated with lots of money
Yes that investment they are talking of is on there paper and not knowing that we have managed our Mines before. There’s hardly been no improvement at all in terms of machinery or production as to what they claim to have pumped in. Ba kabwalala twanaka nabo Zwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa…….!!!!!!!!!
We might have the moral and ehical reasons to grab the Mines back from KCM, but the handling of this issue by Government is very critical and so far it is Vedanta 1, PF Government 0.
Why?
1. The selling price of the Mines were not fixed by Vedatta as well as the terms of payment.
2. The Board of KCM comprised of Vedatta and PF Government. The Minister of Mines who reports to the President was receiving the minutes as well as the Financial reports, and was reporting to the President in Cabinet meetings.
3. PF Government owes them VAT refunds.
Let us not be emotional but analyse issues. there is a better way of grabbing back the mines but not by burning your hands otherwise you will be unable to eat your food.
Nobody in Zambia today cares about who will take over KCM.All we want is KCM to be grabbed 100% from these selfish Indians who have been exploiting us since 2004-period!!!Even a woman divorces a man who makes fake promises.Too much of anything is bad!!!KCM mine owners have lied too much!!!President Edgar Lungu has done a splendid thing and his decision should be final.KCM OWNERS SHOULD GO TO HELL AND NEVER SEEK TO MEET ECL!!!ZP must cage whosoever shall try to meet senior Govnt officials from Vedanta.If anything all indians working at KCM must be deported to india now!!!if no investor will be found to run konkola mines,so be it because our mineral resources do not get rotten!!!WE CAN KEEP COPPER FOR FUTURE USE AS THAT IS BETTER THAN ENRICHING GREEDY INDIANS FOR FREE!!BRAVO PRESIDENT…
Wrong again people care who will take over…especially if its your equally corrupt Chink partners!!
The Chinese are the reason we can even talk of our resources. They came to Africa and saved us, fair and simple Invested in our economies.
Patriot Abroad – You are one of those naive lazy thinkers…if your friend is lending a loan for you to make improvements on your farm a hideously overpriced valuation and your title deeds are security then you should be worried.
Wake up from your docility!!
Is that how cheap the Presidency has become? They want to meet the President. For what?
Vedanta have never brought in any money in Zambia. All the money that has been spent on the mine has been generated from the resources obtained from our mines. So it’s wrong for anyone to say that they have invested $3billion dollars on the mine. I hope the president doesn’t give audience to their lies and charms.
How does lungu make such a decision and yet fails to get the chende to face these people. Was he drunk when he made those pronouncements? You can’t just open mouth without knowing what you are doing. He is scared to face the people that have been lining his pockets with Zambian people’s money. Can lungu step down so that serious people run this country
“Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself; but talent instantly recognizes genius.”
? Arthur Conan Doyle, The Valley of Fear
VEDANTA,…..READ OUR LIPS, ITS FINAL AND DONE. GO
Zambians have not enjoyed your presence on its copper belt. Your record of damaging our environment and killing our people cannot go unpunished. With court cases on your poisoning our environment still awaiting resolution it is time to pack up. You’ll find others mugs to rob.
GO
Anil Agarwal is as corrupt as ECL, “birds of a feather flock together”
This man was laughing at Zambia when he bought KCM, now who is laughing,. Sadly PF will give in to som bribe that KCM will give them to eat and the matter will be over.
Please don’t sell it to another investor. Just run it as government through ZCCM-IH. We would like to know the true cost of running a large scale mine in Zambia in order to stop other investors from inflating operating costs.
Yes Miner I agree with you we have done it before and by then we never had a say to dispute to all they valued our copper for we only had one source of market London Metal Exchange. Now doors are open lets think wise and positive our copper is on demand world wide. LORD have mercy you have blessed us with abundant mineral resources.
In all including taxes and social spending they have spent roughly $30 million per year for the past 25 years but make more than $250 million per year ……
I support GRZ and lungu on this.
I am sure we have enough Zambians with expats who can do the same job.
The world is judging us.
Let’s all support GRZ
15 years
I grew up in a mining set up and never saw a single Indian working in the mines. Even those we went to school with never entered mining. ..they preferred accounts, medicine and such other careers. Anil came, saw how asleep we were and took the opportunity. Unfortunately he stretched it too far and too long.
Go and speak with the provisional liquidator why do you insist on meeting a head of state.
Ethiopia chased Indian investors too. Africa is waking up. Better late than never. KCM and Vendata have to go.
That’s not waking up its just swapping one abuser for another..have you seen the Chinese loans Ethiopia owes China.
Just remember folks this is not a walk in the park issue and hope the Government is standing on firm ground here for this action. But looking at the composition of that so called “power delegation” I doubt it!
Vedanta will not let their asset go in smoke so easily expect a messy legal war.
Grabbing KCM from this theiving indian I totally support though the way the GRZ is doing it is a worry.
An Indian will never give you a fair deal ……..whites are better because of their social conscious responsibilities, Chinese are not bad , they give fairish deals in Africa because they want to endear China with Africans …….but Indians ….Indians only care for Indians and profit profit ……they don’t care about anything else , if they can suck you dry, they will without thought.
Surely it had to take our mine mothers to protest against these crooks before we could make a decision to safeguard the interests of those that massively support us. Where are the advisors to President Lungu? A lot of cheating has been happening in our rich mineral resources mines where we have been enriching them whilst we go begging for loans and wallowing in abject poverty. And these crooks can even brag that since 2004, they only paid a paltry 1.3 Billion dollars to date meaning they only pay 86 million dollars per year! So where are our economists and accountants? Well done President Lungu, time to be firm is NOW!
On this issue patriotic Zambians should stand with president Lungu.
This Indian is one of those us African are damn and can be toasted everywhere. In fact it’s time to draw red lines and make abundantly clear that tatulefyaya ifyabumbuli.
The new investor should join hands with local Zambian Investors who could be sponsored by Gov and Gov should up its shares in all mines to safeguard our national interests and pride. Make Zambia Great Again.
Kanyeleni uko!
@21 Former UPND..All that bravado is good BUT we DONT have a Government which can do that!! IF it was during KK’s time or Levy’s ( even if he was the cause of this) and better still if it was in Sata’s time I could have said ” YES LET US GO” NOT under this Govt of Mr.Lungu and his feeble minded “delegation”!!
21.1 Ah! Levy was receiving this Anil at State House. What happened to the winter maize project? Come on man every president has been duped in one way or another. KK had his Winston with the diesel from the grass project. The Chinese for all their “shylock” habits have at least done something like the Chembe Bridge on the Luapula.
@21.2 Ndaje,all leaders make mistakes BUT if the collective good deeds out weigh their mistakes they are graded ” Good leaders”. Here we are comparing patriotism to lack of it and seriousness to lack of it,now tell me what in Mr.Lungu shows that he is serious with the job and puts Zambians first in his actions apart from playing to the gallery for his own good.Do you honestly believe Kaizer,Amos Chanda and the school teacher and common miner Musakwa and lawyer of limited experience can competently handle the affairs of KCM??
This is cynical for this Mwenye to even think about, period!
DONT PLAY WITH THIS ANYI, HE IS HIGHLY CONNECTED , THIS WILL BE ANOTHER LAP GREEN CASE AND RSZ THE BOMA WILL PAY ANYI, ORE THAN 4BILLION DOLLAZ MANJE MUZINYA KUTI, LET THE MAN STAY AND VEDANTA , PLEASE STOP BOASTING NANJALA
Jeff Chama is a homo and bum buddy of Deputy Gov Ngandu … haha haha queer bastards
This is what is called being stuck between a rock and a hard place. Vedanta have to go, that is a fact. They have done nothing for Chingola, have externalised all profits while declaring annual losses. On the other hand, we have PF who inspire zero confidence in any Zambian to actually turn this thing around and benefit the workers. Kaizer Zulu mu forefront and people expect good things to happen??
meant PF inspire zero confidence in any SANE Zambian
Sometimes I sit and reflect on how RST and NCCM looked after African welfare. …they built schools, social amenities such as stadiums, swimming pools, social clubs, decent houses. Of course we suffered discrimination in shopping centers, schools, residential areas. But with the current investors there’s still discrimination at work and no development in our townships.
Anil Agarwal of Vedanta has thrown out some numbers and some information, can any Zambian government official dispute those figures? Otherwise, it will give the impression that he is being victimized. That is no good in the ears of investors. Why are Zambian bureaucrats so unhelpful when it counts?
Brother you think Anil would incriminate himself. ..YES WE HAVE BEEN UNDERDECLARING ETC. Please let’s take this plunge together as a nation and if we drown the future will say that we tried.
@21.2 Ndaje,all leaders make mistakes BUT if the collective good deeds out weigh their mistakes they are graded ” Good leaders”. Here we are comparing patriotism to lack of it and seriousness to lack of it,now tell me what in Mr.Lungu shows that he is serious with the job and puts Zambians first in his actions apart from playing to the gallery for his own good.Do you honestly believe Kaizer,Amos Chanda and the school teacher and common miner Musakwa and lawyer of limited experience can competently handle the affairs of KCM??
Sorry I’m not in the habit of judging other people’s intelligence.
The Israelis had 3 meals per day while in Egypt as slaves. They chose to starve in Sinai desert instead of the 3 meals per day in Egypt. If we fail this one, we shall continue complaining against bogus investors until the second advent.
ONE ONLY WONDERS WHY IT HAS TAKEN TOO LONG TO REPOSESS THE MINE. THESE INDIANS CREATED ALOT OF FAKE POSITIONS AND PAID THEMSELVES HANDSOME SALARIES. YOU WOULD FIND SOMEONE WITH A POSITION OF TEAM LEADER. TEAM LEADER FOR WHAT? AND ALL HE DOES IS PLAY GAMES ON THE LAPTOP. COME MONTHEND HE GETS IN DOLLARS AND SEND THE MONEY TO NEW DELHI. THE CYCLE CONTINUES. LET THEM GO. THEY HAVE STOLOEN ENOUGH.