LUSAKA. Sunday, 24th May 2020.
Government has declared gold as a national strategic mineral following the wide occurrence of gold across the country.
This has been done to allow as many citizens as possible to benefit from its exploitation and to act as a store of value for the Bank of Zambia.
Minister of Mines Permanent Secretary, Barnaby Bwalya Mulenga disclosed in a statement that to this end, the Ministry is proposing amendments to the current law to allow that major benefits to go to Zambians.
He said on 20th May 2020, Cabinet approved a proposal from the Minister of Mines and Minerals Development, Hon Richard Musukwa to amend the Mines and Minerals Development Act to close the existing gaps, recognize the occurence of gold countrywide and its improve monitoring and evaluation.
He said of the total 3,666 of gold licences issued, 92% have been issued to Zambians.
GOVERNMENT POLICY ON GOLD
Government has mandated ZCCM-IH to coordinate the gold trading business in Zambia and purchase the gold from artisanal miners.
ZCCM has also been tasked to partner with players in the sub-sector to promote more gold mining.
He said the Policy was to encourage that gold in the country formed the strategic reserve at the Central Bank.
He said the Policy however does not entail grabbing or expropriation of existing gold licences but rather encourages more gold mines to be established in the country.
He said the policy has not been fully utilized, hence current gold producing mines such as Kansanshi Mines Plc, have not been compelled to sell their gold to Bank of Zambia as the law is yet to be amended to actualise the policy aspirations.
He said so far, ZCCM-IH has been establishing gold trading centers, which will afford artisanal gold miners an opportunity to sell their gold.
He said however, the Act allows for the Ministry to give licences to both Zambians and foreigners to encourage foreign direct investment into the sector.
He said licence holders are encouraged to use lawful sources of capital to achieve the licence conditions of mining.
ON ZCCM-IH AND ITS PARTNERSHIPS
Mr. Mulenga has disclosed that ZCCM-IH has partnered with Karma Limited, a company owned by Sudanese nationals.
He said Karma Ltd earlier set up a gold processing plant in Rufunsa at a cost of US$3.5million.
He said ZCCM-IH has partnered with Karma through a special purpose vehicle called Consolidated Gold Company Zambia Limited(CGCZ).
CGCZ has been granted a mining processing licence in Rufunsa District where the company has approached two licence holders namely: Chembe Gold Mine and Sani Gold Mine.
He said both CGCZ and Karma Ltd were not undertaking gold mining but partnering with existing licence holders.
He said
He said ZCCM-IH has also partnered with Array Ltd mining gold in Mumbwa to supply gold ore for processing to CGCZ in Mumbwa and Karma will invest $2.5million for the establishment of the processing plant.
He said the purpose of current ZCCM-IH partnerships is to establish gold processing facilities at two sites, in Rufunsa and Mumbwa.
The partnerships entail that 65% will be for CGCZ while 35% for licence holders.
Mr. Mulenga said that the above efforts would not frustrate Zambians from benefiting from the discovery and occurrence of gold in the country.
He said the partnerships will go to compliment government’s efforts to account for all gold in Zambia.
He said however, Zambia was committed to the promotion of both local and foreign direct investment in the mining sector.