First-quarter copper production in Zambia, Africa’s largest producer, rose to 174 407 t from 170 948 t produced in the corresponding period last year, Zambia’s central bank said on Wednesday.
Copper exports in the first quarter rose to 173 421 t versus 153 306 t exported in the same period last year, a statistics report from the Bank of Zambia showed.
“We should expect more copper with the start of production at the Konkola deep mining project, the resumption of output at Baluba mine and ramp up at Lumwana mine,” said Mathias Mpande, a mining engineering senior lecturer at the University of Zambia.
“Zambia should reach 800 000 t of copper without much difficulty by the end of 2010 unless something unexpected happens,” he said.
Zambia’s total copper production in 2009 was slightly below 700 000 t.
The central bank said cobalt output in the three months to March 31 jumped to 1 921 t from 1 081 t last year, while exports of cobalt increased to 1 905 t from the 1 251 t exported during the first quarter of 2009.
“Cobalt production is increasing because Chambishi Metals has started producing again. The cobalt price is also rising and this is an incentive for cobalt producers to increase their output,” said Mpande.
Copper mining is Zambia’s economic lifeblood and the mines are a major employer in the country of 12-million people.
Foreign mining companies in Zambia include London-listed Vedanta Resources, Canada’s First Quantum Minerals, Glencore International of Switzerland and Metorex of South Africa.
[Mining Weekly]
UNFORTUNATELY, NOT TO THE BENEFIT OF ZAMBIANS.
Can we also see the benefits to the general Zambian population and not Bank of Zambia figures.
People will not feed on the figures when the wealth is being taken out of the country whilst the government is on auto-pilot.
Tax on the mining industry has to be re-visited if the general well-being of a Zambian is to be improved.
Good Evening
Given the fact that “Copper mining is Zambia’s economic lifeblood and the mines are a major employer in the country of 12-million people,” what will happen if all our copper resources are depleted? I know about other resources that cannot last very long at the excavation rate at which the copper is being exported.
Are there any mining specialists on the blog tonight? If so, can someone please tell us how long our copper resources are likely to last?
#3, Nine Chale. That’s a very good observation and question, too. I also look forward to the Geologists or Mining Experts’ contribution. Take care of yourself, #3.
Good news but sadly our people wont get any significant benefits as the winfall tax was scrapped by our selfish political leaders.
where is the winfall tax???
For starters,the civil service is the major employer in Zambia,lets get facts straight before hitting the submit button
Nine Chale ,i say old boy that we can not rely on copper alone,we need to diversify our economy. however with the current dogs we have in govt,its a bit like one banging their head against a brick wall.The lessons were there in KK s time when our copper dependant economy crashed as soon as the copper price fell.seems like these dogs are waiting for the price to crash again then what.the money meant to be made from copper is not materalising due to the dogs (MMD)short sightedness.the sooner they go,the better for all man kind,viva zambia
RED CARD-Smoothcriminal,what is being debated here is not who the largest employers are but the benefits reaching the masses. the civil service being the largest employer is also debatable?
Mike
It was just a point of order, should we sit back and watch while being fed unsabstantiated facts,im not debating,just making a point of correction not to be misled
thank you,,,you may continue with the debate
Here are facts from JCTR and CSO
The latest BNB shows an average nominal increase of K41,250 from K860,250 in February 2010 to K901,500 in March 2010 for a family of six in Lusaka.The increase was mainly driven by increases in the cost of vegetables, dry fish, eggs and cooking oil
Everyday we are shown figures of how the economy is growing,but what is economic growth if the fruits are not trickling down to the masses,how long are we going to wait to benefit,this started almost 20yrs ago when Chiluba (Lazo) was at the helm,are we just cursed or what,look at Angola,namibia,Luanda,even zimbabwe which is just rising from a crisis will overtake us
“Mwale further cautioned that copper resources were slowly but surely being depleted in Zambia and suggested investing in other key economic sectors, such as agriculture and tourism, to sustain the country’s economy going in the long term.” This statement was made by Zambia’s Minister of Mines and Minerals, Maxwell Mwale, when he attended the World Economic Forum on Africa, which took place in Cape Town, Jun. 10-12, 2009. I found this article on the ipsnews net web site, author: Kristin Palitza. It’s too long to cut and paste, but I found it interesting.
If only we had a President, does Zambia have a one at the moment. I doubt it very much. I though the President died and we’re just waiting for that term to complete in 2011 to Elect a New President. What an old tired small brained statehouse caretaker
Zambian are so narrow minded. Dont you see that the mining industry is only a US$5 billion investment? The US and UK are trillion dollar economies and this is why they live very well. When Zambia can attract US$30 billion in FDI, you’ll see the benefit. For now, trying to destroy the mines by being envious on other peoples investments is going to take Zambia back 30 years!
Nine Chale and mike;
True, the civil service has more people employed, but those are not productive, or before am castigated, they have no ditrect connection to the production of wealth. they just offer SERVICES. They rely on the few mining employees to be milked in taxes, so that they also can get a share. It worries when the people in production jobs get so little money. If we increased people in production jobs, then ukuchefya aba ma services, then we will go forward.
Copper is a diminishing asset just like the Ozone layer. People, The cost of production in Zambia for any product is very high. just check how excpensive plots(residential) have become. we cannot win as a nation , thats why we fail to
1:Tooth picks (and yet we have a lot of trees)
2:Clothes ( a lot of cotton)
3:pro
3: processing food locally(despite having good and predictable weather)
4: Shoes( despite a lot of livestock for leather)
5:Fruits(still imported)
6:copper made products(very expensive)
7:Education too costly(yet we gott independence more that 45yers ago)
8: Hospitals still with old equipment(we still out for specialist treatment-RSA)
9:house/building rentals are wickedly high
10: we are only 13 million(what of india and china)
11. we still use age to determine leadership instead of calibre and education(enlightment)
12. Imitiikula empanga(but the average age mu government is 58)
13.evrything on zambisn is imported .i.e hat, made from taiwan, sunglasses, rsa, shirt,italy, ties – japan, belt-indonesia, trousers- germany, socks- shanghai, shoes-finland, car-japan, pant- dubai etc
4 and 3…
at the current rate of mining…coupled with the last 40years of activity…i reckon we have up to 10-15years…Hence this massive activities to dig out everything we have…on the most terrible deals ever signed by a government in Zed…thanks tata Chiluba…
we are out concerning our mukuba (copper)…we need to look to other ventures…actually with the current revenue we get from copper, we are better off to look to other activities-the under rated farming block of Zed, for example-and improve on where we stand…we have gone on without serious copper backup the last few years…and therefore making our people really poor…
The economy needs to diversify, however we seem to be fixated on copper. It has been called the copper curse by economists. There is too much emphasis on copper because thats where the foreighn exchange comes from.
The Govt is so much against re introducing the windfall tax while the mines are making all the money from our natural resources. This adds no value to the nation coz all the money gained is externalised.
The day the minerals run out, these guys will walk out. Ask Anglo America
Can our politicians tell us how many Zambians are now employed by the mining companies , out of the 12million Zambians and the average wage they get per month or any Zambian can give the figures I would like to know
Before we even talk about Sixth National Development Plan (2011-15), it is wise to reflect on what we have done so far. Indeed, is privatization of the mines justified?
The history of Zambia is about copper because without copper Zambia has no history. Copper production was on a steady rise from 1932 to 1971. Somewhere, in the early 70s, KK embarked on a partial nationalization of the mines in order to break the social classes and insure equitable distribution of wealthy. The endemic poverty in Zambia was and still is so because the majority of people have no assets and if they do, it is not the wealth creating assets, and worse still, they do not believe they can acquire them because of historical and cultural constraints. Money was in the hands of a few white foreigners.
. It was against this background that KK made the Mulugushi reforms. The colonial government neglected the manufacturing sector development. Most finished goods came from Southern Rhodesia and South Africa. However, after Independence, the new Zambian government introduced policies that were intended for encouraging the manufacturing sector. Unfortunately, the KK government viewed with suspicion the private sector as it was dominated by white foreigners. Now we have learnt a lesson that It’s not by confining one’s neighbor that one is convinced of one’s sanity. Regrettably, large scale non-mining enterprises were nationalized through Mulungushi reforms of April 1968 where government equity holdings were peg at 51% in a number of key foreign-owned firms. By January 1970, Zambia had…
By January 1970, Zambia had acquired majority holding in the Zambian operations of the two major foreign mining corporations. This coincided with decline of production of the early 70s. To add salt to the injury, copper prices on the international market went down in 1974 until LPM era.
What is interesting is that there was a further steep decline in copper production in 1982 with complete nationalization forcing the government to start subsidizing the mines to overcome low mineral revenues against a huge mine labor force. Against such phenomena, there was no reinvestment in mining infrastructure. This lead to World Bank and IMF demands on the Zambian government to privatize the mines as a precondition for foreign aid.
Now the mines are privatized and copper production is again increasing. From the statistics given above, it’s clear that low production was directly related to nationalization. Thus the best way to run the mines is to let them be in private hands.
But how do we insure that the Zambians benefit from the mining sector? Well you might say that the mines should be paying taxes. It’s shocking that this economy whose GDP contribution mainly comes from the mining sector has mines paying less than they ought to. I have data that shows that Zain (now Airtel) paid more tax than any organization in Zambia in 2009 and 2010 financial years. The mines drag their feet to pay tax. If you don’t believe me read the following:
Those of us who advocate for reintroduction of Windfall tax know that the mines evade tax by way of arrears and the cost of the amount overdue (interest) is not accounted for and worse still they can even cook figures to avoid paying correct amounts. Living in tax arrears for this long is like borrowing money from government at interest free. Listen, the mines don’t have to agree to pay tax. They have an obligation to pay tax.
Privatization of the mines is not yet justified regardless in increase in copper production and reinvestment in the mining sector. Now copper price per ton has hit over US$10,000 while the exchange rate of the Kwacha is still stack at K4,800 per US1$. In those LPM days of windfall tax, the Kwacha would correlate with copper price per ton.
My wild but educated guess would peg the Kwacha at K2500 to US$1 at the prevailing copper prices. This means we are not getting anything tangible from the mines. Remember this is an import based economy meaning more value for the notes and thus a higher purchase power for an average Zambian. I would have managed to do a side business or some farming while being in formal employment. I would have managed to buy a tractor and other high tech agriculture machinery. I would have been an employer and this would go well in diversification of the economy. Please let’s take advantage of the favorable high copper prices.
I repeat, privatization of the mines is not yet justified. But by no means should we reverse privatization. However, it is a challenge on the part of government to make su
I would be proud of these figures if our manufacturing and agriculture sector were vibrant. I know that the Zambian government should introduce programs aimed at stabilizing the economy and restructuring it to reduce dependence on copper. But these low figures are not because of diversification of the economy but mainly due to an improper tax system. This proves that we are overburdening the middle income group through excessive income tax, VAT etc while we let the mines off the hook. And by the way, what is the future of Zambia when we finish mining copper while as at now we get literally nothing from it? Shouldn’t we be getting income from the mining sector and channel it to agriculture sector and value addition on all our exports? What should be government’s proper entrepreneurship…
No, privatization of the mines is not yet justified, but can be justified if and only if we put in place mechanisms that force mines to contribute significantly to the national treasury and to the well being of Zambians and strategize by reinvesting what we ought to earn from the mines into other sustainable sectors of our economy.