An Economical Analyst, Yusuf Dodia says the increased production of copper at First Quantum Minerals (FQM) will benefit the country.
Mr Dodia said the increase in production will witness more employment and the awarding of contracts to Zambian contractors.
Speaking in an interview with ZANIS, Mr Dodia said if production is increased, it means manpower will have to increase which will translates into increased income to the local people.
He noted that FQM will have to generate a lot of power to run the mines which will result in the company paying ZESCO, a government company more money which will eventually remain in the economy.
FQM recorded its highest ever annual copper production of 779,000 tonnes in the fourth quarter of last year representing an 11 percent increase in production compared to the third quarter of the same year.
Mr Dodia also said copper prices on the London Metal Exchange (LME) have gone up, urging different mining companies in the country should utilize the opportunity to up their production in order to maximize their profits.
He has however, said increased production of copper will not significantly add value to the economy.
Mr Dodia said this year, the mining industry is expected to export over 1 Million tons of copper which translates into eight billion dollars of export earnings of which most of it does not remain in the country.
“The significant portion of that eight billion dollars will remain outside Zambia and therefore the effect of the growth on our economy will be very minor,” Dodia said.
He said the Mining sector is responsible for 80 percent of Zambia’s export earnings of which majority of the dollars go out of the country.
“We need to make sure that there is a law which says if you export one 100 tons of copper, that money which is earned must come into the Zambian Bank,” he said.
It be honest this is just wasting our resources. The winners are the countries which turn our copper and other natural resources into finished products. It is in the processing industries that billions of jobs are created. It is the fully manufactured goods that billions of dollars are made for the country. More than 50 years of indepence- it’s high time Zambia started processing our minerals and other natural resource to finished products. In less than ten years time the richest countries will be those who will designing and making electric vehicles and electric vehicle spares. I don’t know whether our leaders (both political and business people) are have started planning for the above mentioned. I don’t know if our leaders have started thing of designing and making street powerpoints…
The diasporans who support upnd are now upset over this good news.evil
If mining is already being done by others, it leaves Zambia to pursue copper-based and other metals industrialisation with IDC. Why this is not being done, I don’t know.
Just to be clear, 779,000 tonnes is not all from Zambia.
FQM 2020 total production in Zambia
Kansanshi – 221
Sentinel – 251
Total production is 472, 000 tonnes. Just slightly more than 2019.
Aint it a sad reality that zambians are only employed by Foringers to dig their own minerals for the same forigners ?
Increased copper production can only be impressive if it goes hand in hand with good national mining laws. As it stands, we are just handing out our copper to foreign companies who stash their huge profits in off-shore accounts. Surely, there must be a way to ensure that at least 50% of every ton of copper exported REMAINS in Zambian sovereign state accounts!
Which mines does FQM own?
stop whingeing and negotiate with miners to create smelters and keep the value in the country
Mr. Dodia First Quantum mining method is capital intensive, so the idea of more being created wont be there. The best would have been to compel the miners keep a large amount of their forex in multinational banks based in Zambia. I keep commenting how DR Congo manages to keep miningn firms on their toes yet we are more stable but not managing to do the same.
Not many jobs will created as anticipated by Mr. Dodia because the mining methods employed by First Quantum are capital intensive unlike in the past when the methods used to be labour intensive.