The Emerald and Semi-Precious Stones Mining Association of Zambia (ESMAZ) has advised government to consider investing in the gemstone mining industry as an alternative to attaining national development.
ESMAZ general secretary Victor Kalesha says the gemstone mining industry has the potential to earn the country foreign exchange now that the country’s foreign earnings had been greatly affected by the falling copper prices on the international market.
Mr. Kalesha told ZANIS in an interview today that the gemstone industry has for a long time been neglected as it lack proper investment hence making it difficult for the industry to grow and contribute meaningfully to the country’s economic growth.
Mr. Kalesha further said the gemstone industry also had the potential to help curb the escalating poverty levels that the country was facing through job creation.
He however noted that the industry would only contribute to the creation of jobs among other things once it received investment that would boost its operations.
Mr. Kalesha said it was because of the numerous challenges the gemstone mining industry was facing that ESMAZ wrote to government to request for help.
He said the industry among other things needed to acquire equipment that would enable the gemstone miners to produce finished products that would be exported thereby earning foreign exchange as well as create employment opportunities for the Zambian citizenry.
Mr. Kalesha said there was demand of gemstones on the international markets as most people on the globe opted to store money in form of precious stones .
Mr. kalesha also appealed to government to geologically resurvey the mining sites that had been allocated to the gemstone miners so that they could know the viability of the sites.
He said this would even enable the gemstone miners to pay their area charges to government as opposed to the current situation where miners were unable to pay their area charges simply because most of the sites were not too productive.
ZANIS/MP/MKM/ENDS
Is anyone besides me noticing strange investment tendencies around the globe? Everyone is very hesitant to fish out their bucks.
This reminds me of ‘small mines in Ndola’ in the KK era . It was doing so well then came Ama Sene-sene, all hell broke loose…..
True the word; the Zambian emerald is considered the best in the world and fetches much more that copper per ton. However, we don’t have as large deposits as the copper ones. This could be the reason why govt has for a long time neglected this industry, otherwise it should be considered an engine for growth of our economy.
Vinthu
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