President Michael Sata has expressed satisfaction at the successful auction of emeralds held in Lusaka recently.
President Sata said following the outcome of the successful auctions there is no doubt about the country’s ability to hold these auctions locally and maximize revenue which might have been understated through various manipulations.
“On the insistence of Government, Kagem Mines Plc held a low grade rough emeralds auction from 15th – 19th April, 2013 which realized US$15.2 million which was the highest value ever realized,” the President said.
“Similarly, from 15th – 19th July another auction of high grade emeralds was held at which US$31.5 million was realized. This is the second highest auction revenue achieved to date and the best in terms of value per carat sold.”
The average per carat price of US$54 has set a new record. Furthermore, all the 583,448 carats placed on offer were sold.
The Head of State said it is obvious that selling and auctioning of gemstones locally will create employment, enhance value addition through cutting, polishing and jewelry making activities as well as enhance revenue collection as a result of proper monitoring mechanisms.
“Additional spillover effects to other sectors of the economy will also be enhanced as international buyers who come and stay in the hotels will end up visiting other tourist attractions as well as having an interest in investment opportunities in various sectors of the economy,” President Sata said.
President Sata reiterated government’s commitment to diversifying the economy away from copper and promoting value addition industries in the mining sector in line with the PF Manifesto.
The President commended the Ministry of Mines, Energy and Water Development for implementing his directive on gemstone auctions without delay.
Issued by:GEORGE CHELLAH
SPECIAL ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT
PRESS AND PUBLIC RELATIONS
Asryt !!!
not bad, thats so nice bad just tired of this ”’President Sata going for the swearing In ceremony at Statehouse”’ is it everyday?
@ Kennedy….
I totally agree with you on the issue of the president coming out to engage and talk to his country men & women on the state of the nation.
If he cant hold a press conference, let him address the nation on radio & tv. In fact this will give him an opportunity to explain to the nation what projects if any his govt is undertaking and those planned.
You simply cant run the country through press releases
WE ARE TIRED OF PRESS STATEMENTS. WHAT WE NEED IS A LIVE PRESS CONFERENCE NOT THESE COOKED STATEMENTS.
31.5million & 15.2million US dollars thats a lots money for zambia!!,,, my questions to you guys with deeper insights this issue, was that money paid directly to the government? is kagem governmental or private? just how much of that money goes into government accounts??… just what benefit has this auction to a ordinary zambian on the street??
and just thinking what happened to those suitcases of money recovered from liato?????
IWE FIMOFIMO, WHAT ZAMBIA NEEDS ARE WORKING POLICIES WITH A SET OF INNOVATIVE WORKING MEN AND WOMEN FORMULATING POLICIES SUCH AS LOCALISING PRECIOUS STONES AUCTIONING. WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO BENEFIT FROM AN EMPTY PRESS CONFERENCE WHICH WE USED TO HAVE IN PREVIOUS GVTs? YOU MEAN YOU ARE SO BLIND AND ILLITERATE YOU CAN’T SEE THE NUMEROUS BENEFIT OF AUCTIONING MINERALS AND OTHERS LOCALLY?
Mr President this has been long overdue. But congratulations for believing in ourselves which other learned presodents failed. Very soon we should start auctioning copper and other items in Zambia.
@Osadabwa iwe
Go get them from the Watchdog, still are you aware?
@ ndobo. Well thought. Apparently, there are transaction managers who will handle this transaction for taxation purposes. These transaction agents are again apparently a consortium that was also engaged in marketing of the auction and registering participants etc.
Since this was not an open auction, but a “sealed tender”, who are the adjudicators of this process? This is where the buyer is handpicked
Tell us about the trucks that police impounded full of copper. Is that the reason you shut ZWD to keep us in the dark. By the way we still read ZWD.
Yes moving forward more auctions please….., but make sure that no dirty hands around, more money in Zambias pocket i hope.
@cindy
but just how much of that money benefits zambians?…. because our copper is benefitting swiss economy far much more than our own zambia
I think the only people benefiting from such is about 10% of the Zambian population, thats my assumption looking at how grey Zambia is, yes things are bad everywhere but Africa and Zambia to be exact takes the cake, i pressume we are given this news so we get hope but in the actual real world ” butter is smeared on our faces,” am sure the ones benefiting most are the chosen ones, i dont think the people in kwa kalingalinga, chaisa, chawama etc, are chosen to patake in this cake, maybe if there was free education, better health care, ventures for the youth and the old, otherwise, it’s just one of those success stories passing on as though they were a fiction!
I hope things will change though, i strongly believe ba sata can turn things around if he wanted.
if you are still reading the zwd,then why are you complaining,
welldone. But remember things are bad. We expect a lot from your government. Please work and talk less with your minions.
Voicemail, iwe stop bwabwatila
Good development….though the money is peanuts and loose change compared to what we are losing every week from copper transfer pricing. How is this called diversifying when the economy is heavily reliant on the mining sector; celebrate when you start producing such figures in the Agriculture sector every week….this has the hallmarks of young immature PA George Chellah written all over it. Ask Sata about it and he won’t know what you are talking about.
If auctioning within would create even two new jobs, don’t you think that’s positive thing sir?
Only pf cadres with tu ma chinesse phones think zwd was blocked. Its like burryin your head in the sand and think ‘YOU CANT SEE ME’
The auction of the Emeralds in this country is the best thing that has happened to this sector of mining.
Just Imagine how much our country lost in revenues from the sene-sene days .
We need to start determining the price of our copper and other minerals here in Zambia in consultation with other copper producing countries and not through third parties/middlemen
This emarald stance by government must be suported
Auctioning of emeralds is neither here or there. What we should be doing is adding value to them so that they fetch the highest possible price. Where are the gem cutting schools for all those kids who were dancing naked in the streets in September 2011?
In Ndola. The Gemstone Processing and Lapidary Training Center (GPLTC) is a training institution which was established in 2005 by the Ministry of Science Technology and Vocational Training, now Ministry of Education Science and Vocational Training (MESVT).
The Gemstone Processing and Lapidary Training Center (GPLTC)!!! the question is it functional to international standards or at least competitive standards????
I don’t know but their website says they are operational
If only you could do good things, like, taking over ZR, Rebasing the kwacha, auctioning of emeralds and tarrings of roads in zambia, you would have been zambia’s best president but alas, you are unpredictable person mr president and your governance has more of evilness than good
Of all the national issues and challenges, the buffoon just chooses to comment on makwebo. Kaponya indeed
Kudos to GEMFIELDS for the 2 successful auctions held in Zambia which have raised nearly 50mUS$. We are nearly coming to end of 2013 and there has not been any reported auctions by similar size emerald mining companies and its all strangely quite. Are GRIZZLY and other West African/Indian owned companies no longer producing from their mines? If producing where are they selling the emeralds to finance the operations? Its reported that we produce 20% of world’s emeralds and whose total annual global production has been put at US$2bn. This implies that Zambia accounts for US$400m. Perhaps the Mines Minister can inform the nation, apart from GEMFIELDS, the production/sales figures from the other mines
This is a belated statement.Mines Minister had reported to the nation over a fortnight ago…
I missed the Minister’s statement then. What did he report and did report address my concerns? Better still is there a link to the Minister’s statement?
Well done bashi Chilufya, we have lost lots of money from our gemstones. This is good news ( BOUNTIFUL ZAMBIA ) The Bible proclaims that Diamonds have ” miraculous healing powers” thus includes semi precious stones like emeralds, for example indeed the discovery of diamonds in the 1960s & 70s has had a phenomenal healing effect on BOTSWANA, once ranked as one of the poorest countries in the world ! but look at today there economy is one of the best in Africa and the world all because of good governance policys. Keep working PF Ichalo chilekunfwa…