Irish Aid Northern Province Development Programme has expressed dissatisfaction with the pace at which Santa Maria Health project in Chilubi District was moving.

Development Programme Advisor Fackson Nyanga said although a lot has been done, the organisation was not impressed with the pace at which the project which started in
2004 was progressing.

Mr. Nyanga said delays to complete the project in Chilubi which involved among
others construction of a theater and rehabilitation of a maternity block was
delaying the start of a similar project in Kaputa district.

He disclosed that the Irish Aid had so far committed over K2 billion towards the two
projects and was anxious to see them completed so that they could contribute to the
improvement of reproductive health in the province.

Mr. Nyanga observed that Chilubi and Kaputa districts were identified to have the
worst reproductive health statistics in the province due to lack of adequate health
facilities.

So far, one of the components in the project, the theater block has been completed
and fitted with modern equipment sourced under the Oret programme, a joint programme
between the Zambian and Netherlands Governments.

Construction of two staff houses and the rehabilitation of the maternity block was
almost completed.

Mr. Nyanga who attributed the delay to complete the Santa Maria project partly to
tendering procedures also disclosed that they were currently holding talks with the
office of the Provincial Health Director on possibilities of constructing another
staff house suitable for the doctor.

He said the organisation’s initial plan was that one of the two houses which has
been built would accommodate a medical doctor but it was small.

Meanwhile, Mr. Nyanga has said there was need for Government experts in construction to look into possibilities of using local materials to put up structures in a bid to reduce on the high cost of construction on the Island.

Mr. Nyanga observed that it was more expensive to put up buildings on the Island
because building materials such as sand were not available and required to be
transported by water.

Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) is sinking shafts at a new deep-level mine, which together with other projects will more than double finished copper output by 2010, the firm said on Monday.

The new underground mine together with a smelter upgrade and tailings project would lift annual output at Zambia’s largest copper producer to 500,000 tonnes in 2010 from the projected 200,000 tonnes this year, KCM communications advisor Samuel Equamo said in an interview.
KCM had started sinking shafts at the Konkola Deep Mining Project (KDMP), which is due to become Zambia’s largest single mine operation when it comes on stream in 2010, he said.

“KCM expects to produce 500,000 tonnes of finished copper per year when its key projects, the Konkola Deep Mining Project, the (Nkana) smelter project and the Chingola Refractory Ores project, are fully operational by 2010,” Equamo told Reuters in an interview.

Equamo said a technology known as heap-leach would be used to process waste from copper mining, which had accumulated for decades at the Chingola Open Pit mine.

Equamo said material at one of the KCM tailings dams was running out and the firm would start reclaiming copper from another dam to ramp up output.

KCM, majority-owned by London-based Vedanta Resources Plc , produces 150,000 tonnes of copper at the Nkana Smelter now being upgraded to double its output.

KCM operates the Chingola Open Pit, Konkola and Fitwaola copper mines, the Nkana Smelter and Nampunwe pyrite mine, which together account for nearly half of Zambia’s total copper output.

Equamo said the Konkola Deep Mining project, which is still budgeted to cost $400 million, would produce 180,000 tonnes of copper per year when it is fully operational in 2010.

Equamo said the pre-sinking of the main shaft at the new underground mine is already 90 metres deep. “Work is in progress to erect the head gear and sinking winders in order to allow for the deepening of the shaft to 1,490 metres,” he said.

Equamo said the engineers would then begin to sink supportive shafts for ventilation and dewatering and that this work would be completed in 2008. A new concentrator is also being built alongside the new underground mine.

Copper mining is Zambia economic lifeblood and the vast copper and cobalt mines are a major employer in this southern Africa country of 11.7 million people.

Zambia’s sole oil refinery is working from reserves after running out of fuel stocks amid growing energy demand, an industry official told Dow Jones Newswires Monday.

The Indeni refinery has formally notified the Ministry of Energy and Water Development about the problem, an official at Zambia’s Energy Regulatory Board said.

“The refinery run out of crude oil stocks on Friday,” he said by telephone from Zambia, adding that for now, reserves are being used to produce fuel.

Last week the Zambian government ordered all oil marketing companies, or OMCs, to import enough finished fuel stocks to avert a crisis. The official said the next consignment of stock is expected July 22.

Growing fuel demand, spurred by increased copper mining operations, has depleted reserves at the refinery and since last month Zambia has been facing a diesel shortage.

The refinery has been ensuring copper mines receive enough diesel by rationing supply to OMCs. However, to ease the countrywide shortage the government directed the refinery to end diesel rationing, which has depleted its stocks.

Last year, the Zambian government ordered the country’s 17 OMCs to keep strategic reserves to avoid a repeat of the 2005 crisis which paralyzed operations at Mopani and Konkola Copper Mines, the country’s leading copper producers. But so far very few OMCs have complied with the directive.

With the hydropower sector also overstretched, Zambia’s energy crisis is expected by industry officials to worsen.
Production of copper could be hit if the situation is protracted, with the country’s copper output expected to hit 800,000 metric tons next year compared with 500,000 tons in 2006.

Indeni Refinery, which the Zambian government jointly owns it with Total SA TOT, is set to close for a month of maintenance work in September.

Local government and housing minister Sylvia Masebo has been congratulated on her appointment to chair the Local Government Desk in the SADC region.

Ms Masebo has also been elected as Board member of the Commonwealth of the Local
Government Forum.

Vice president Rupiah Banda who was speaking during the official opening of the
Local Government Association of Zambia’s 51st Annual Conference in Livingstone
today, said Ms. Masebo should take the opportunity to spearhead development of the
local government for Zambia, the commonwealth as well as SADC.

And Mr Banda has implored the Local Government Association of Zambia (LGAZ) to
seriously pursue the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) for the benefit of the
local government system.

Mr. Banda said the APRM, which is a NEPAD initiative if properly implemented, would
deal with issues of corruption, wrong decision making, and promote good governance.

He added that the APRM tool enables integral and sustainable development to occur on
the continent.

And the Vice president has said government is seriously looking into the issues that
LGAZ raised with President Mwanawasa and that further consultations with relevant
bodies are going on.

Mr Banda informed members of the LGAZ that President Mwanawasa has directed the
Minister of Labour and Social Security to ensure that councils are exempted from the
provisions of workers compensation act in response to some issues raised in the
consultative meeting two months ago.

LGAZ requested president Mwanawasa to exempt local government employees from workers compensation fund, and implementation of the national decentralisation policy among others.