Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Copper Prices set to Boom: Can Zambia Emulate Magafuli to Benefit?

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Zambian copper heading to market
  • Copper prices surge above $7,000 per tonne, first time in 3 years
  • Tanzania gets 16% stake in Acacia mines and $300 million good faith payout
  • Tanzania to share 50:50 share in Mining revenue with Barrick Gold

By Kalima Nkonde

There is widespread expectation by most copper industry experts and commodity investors that the electric car and the renewable energy technology revolution, which was given impetus by 2015 Paris Climate Change Agreement, is set to spur copper prices through the roof from now on through out the next 20 years and more.

The news for high copper prices cannot be exciting news to most Zambians except for a few beneficiaries as the last copper boom from 2003 to 2013 with its high GDP growth rates never trickled down and reduced poverty. Copper price increases are considered as a curse by most enlightened Zambians due to the country’s poor leadership.

Electric car revolution

The expected number one driver of the copper prices boom is the electric car. According to the International Copper Association (ICA), electric vehicles use a substantial amount of copper in their batteries and in the windings and copper rotors used in electric motors. A single car can have up to six kilometers of copper wiring.

While cars using internal combustion engines require up to 23 kg of copper each, the ICA report found that a hybrid electric vehicle uses nearly double that amount at 40 kg of copper, and a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle uses 60 kg. Depending on the size of battery, an electric bus can use between 224 kg and 369 kg of copper.

“Without copper you wouldn’t be able to run electric vehicles, it’s that simple,” John Fennell, CEO of the Australian branch of the International Copper Association, was quoted as saying by ABC News.

According to the report by consultancy IDTechEx, commissioned by the International Copper Association, demand for electric cars and buses are expected to reach 27 million by 2027, the bulk of them coming from China.

“Demand for electric vehicles is forecast to increase significantly over the next ten years as technology improves, the price gap with petrol cars is closed and more electric chargers are deployed,” IDTechEx Senior Technology Analyst Franco Gonzalez said in the report.

The International Energy Agency (IEA), on the other hand, estimates that the demand for electric vehicles globally could reach between 9 million and 20 million by 2020 and between 40 million and 70 million by 2025.

“Without copper you wouldn’t be able to run electric vehicles, it’s that simple,” John Fennell, CEO of the Australian branch of the International Copper Association, was quoted as saying by ABC News.

The Chinese, strategic and visionary as usual, have become the World’s biggest supporter of electric cars. According to the New York Times article of 10 October, 2017, “Already the world’s largest maker and buyer of electric cars, China is forcing the rest of the auto industry toward a battery-powered future. There is a powerful reason that automakers worldwide are speeding up their efforts to develop electric vehicles — and that reason is China.”

“The world’s major car manufacturers like General Motors, Ford, Volvo, Volkswagen and others have all joined the bandwagon of adding electric cars to their lines and are also moving much of their research, development and production of electric cars to China. China in turn is pressuring them to share that technology with their Chinese partners to their lines fearing that they may be left behind “, the New York Times reported.

In the light of the expected booming prices of copper which currently stands at around $7,100 as at 16 October, 2017, having increased by about 19% this year alone, according to the London Financial Times, copper investors are scrambling to buy shares in mining houses

“But rather than just buy shares in big miners, where copper is often part of a wider portfolio of commodities, they are also backing small companies who offer more leverage to the copper price, albeit with much higher risks,” the paper said.

According to the paper, there are some analysts who believe that the take-up of electric vehicles will be so quick that it will require the mined copper supply base for the whole world — currently 20m tonnes — to double over the next 20 years and this substantial increase in copper supply cannot be met by simply expanding existing mines.

The Financial Times goes on to state that in the light of the expected boom in copper prices, small mining companies like SoldGold in Ecuador, Ivanhoe Mines, Atalaya Mining, Georgia Mining and others are attracting investor’ attention. SoldGold which is mapping its copper and gold deposits in Ecuador has had its shares surging by 900% in past one year despite that production is about ten years away.

“Ivanhoe mines are also developing the Kakula and Kamoa copper deposit in the Democratic Republic of Congo with China’s Zijin Mining. The company says its discovery in DRC is the largest copper discovery ever made in Africa and the fifth largest copper deposit in the world, with indicated resources at more than 30m tonnes of copper. Shares in the company have risen by more than 300 per cent over the past year. It is now valued at $3bn,” the paper added.

In Australia, the huge mining house, BHP Billiton in the past year announced to spend $600 million upgrading and expanding the mine and its infrastructure, with its eye firmly on growing demand and price for copper.

Renewable energy effect on copper prices

Renewable energy is energy that is generated from natural processes like sunlight, geothermal, wind, water etc and is the alternatives to using fossil fuels. Copper conductors are used in major electrical renewable energy components, such as turbines, generators, transformers, inverters, electrical cables, power electronics, and information cable.

According to the 2016 World Copper Association, in setting up a 15-year Copper Technology Roadmap for Asia, it stated “Along with electric vehicles, the major trends were in areas like renewable energy, There’s four times as much copper used in renewable energy generation than there is in traditional coal-fired power generation”, It said. “And the general trend to less pollution means more efficient appliances, which translates to using more copper, because it reduces electrical and heat energy losses in the system and is cleaner to run.”

Magufuli Mining reforms warning to Zambian Mining houses

There is no doubt that Zambia will benefit very little just like in the past if the status quo continues. Mining houses need to be engaged and warned that if there are uncooperative and not ready to accept win- win reforms, others can come and take their place or legislation will be passed to revise all development agreements.

Zambia’s neighbour in the north, Tanzania, is an example of what happens when mining houses take their hosts for granted and takes exploitation to the extreme. President John Pombe “ Bull dozer” Magufuli has introduced draconian reforms in the mining industry.

“We must benefit from our God-given minerals and that is why we must safeguard our natural resource wealth to ensure we do not end up with empty mining pits,” Magufuli

When the country’s biggest Gold Mining house, Acacia Mining, was caught red handed with10 times more gold in its export containers than the company had declared, as well as undeclared minerals such as iron and sulphur, the president instituted wide ranging reforms for the mining industry. Magufuli instituted an audit of Acacia which resulted in the imposition of a tax bill on the a company of $190billion for back taxes and penalties. This monster tax bill for all intents and purposes may have been deliberate and intended to either chase them and look for another investor or was a basis for negotiation but it was dire warning to other mining tax evaders and a deterrent.

“We must benefit from our God-given minerals and that is why we must safeguard our natural resource wealth to ensure we do not end up with empty mining pits,” Magufuli told a rally in his home village in Chato district, northwestern Tanzania, he was quoted by one of the local papers.

The Tanzanian government has passed laws which require government to own 16% stake in mines. The other laws require Mining companies to train Tanzanians, give preference to local suppliers and to source from joint ventures between domestic and foreign firms if domestic suppliers cannot be found. The new mining laws also raised royalty tax for gold, copper, silver and platinum exports to six per cent from four per cent. They also give the government the right to tear up and renegotiate contracts for natural resources like gas or minerals, and remove the right to international arbitration.

On 19th October,2017, the Tanzania government settled its longstanding dispute with Barrick Gold’s Acacia Mines. Barrick gold gave Tanzania 16% stake in three gold mines, 50% share in revenue of mines(like Botswana does with De Beers) and a one off payment of $300 million to resolve the dispute which followed the banning of export of unprocessed minerals and the $190 billion tax bill.

President Magufuli was happy with settlement adding, “ Now that we are shareholders, we can sit down over a cup of coffee and amicably resolve any outstanding issues”.

How can Zambia benefit from the expected Boom?

In the light of the high level of debt that Zambia has accrued partly due to mines not contributing their fare of taxes, this should be sufficient incentive by the Zambian government to make brave and bold decisions as President Lungu has alluded to in his past speeches. Unfortunately, so far the government has just shown boldness with regard to decisions affecting Zambians like the removal of subsidies on electricity,fuel and reducing prices paid by Food Reserve Agency to farmers by 29% to K60, increasing taxes and levies affecting Zambians.

It is time they showed the same zeal towards the Mines.

In his address to Parliament on September 15,2017, President Lungu said, “Mining recovered from a growth rate of 0.2 percent in 2015 to 7 percent in 2016 but the recovery was not accompanied by job creation as the sector laid off an average of 10, 576 workers in 2016.”

Mining justified the 2015 and 2016 retrenchments on the low prices of copper miners but now that prices have increased, nobody in government or the Opposition is putting pressure on the mines to re-hire the workers as the reason for their retrenchment is no longer valid. Is it because it is not an election year?

This apparent favoritism of mines by government in comparison with Zambian citizens and the fact that Zambians are not benefiting from their resources will sooner or later have political consequences especially if our leaders are perceived as the only ones benefiting.

President Lungu said, “Mining recovered from a growth rate of 0.2 percent in 2015 to 7 percent in 2016 but the recovery was not accompanied by job creation as the sector laid off an average of 10, 576 workers in 2016.”

In the current scenario, Zambia is not benefitting much from employment and neither is country benefiting much in terms of taxes. In addition ,unlike the old private sector mining owners Roan Consolidated Copper Mines and Nchanga Consolidated copper mines before nationalization, who helped the mining and local communities with sports facilities, housing, hospitals, craft colleges, roads and all sorts sponsorship, the current ones are just interested in digging holes on our land and have very low Corporate responsibility budgets.

So the question is:whose interests are mining houses saving in Zambia? What is the costs benefit analysis of having these investors?

It is incumbent upon strategic thinkers in both government and the Opposition to consider this issue seriously and do something about it as Mining houses will not make moves on their own. They are not here to do us favours but maximize profits thereby increase their companies’ share prices.

In order for Zambia to benefit from the expected mining boom, the government should not wait but consider the following actions:

1. Bring back and renegotiate the windfall tax and involve people likes former Finance Minister Ngandu Magande and others who negotiated and implemented it under Mwanawasa. The major justification by the mines for its removal after intense lobbying of the Rupiah Banda administration was mainly due to 2008/9 financial crisis which is no longer valid

2. Consider revising development agreements including the unfair retention of 60% of foreign exchange from copper exports by mines abroad with only 40% coming back to Zambia.

3. Pump money to combat tax evasion and illicit financial flows by recruiting international Accountants, lawyers and Tax experts experienced in mining issues

4. Shop around for investors in car electric batteries to locate to Zambia as raw materials are in abundance for value addition. Encourage and give incentives to companies like ZAMEFA so that industries related to copper can spring up in mining towns and other parts of Zambia

5. Compel mines to instruct their captive foreign suppliers to re-locate to mining towns so as to create employment and transfer technology given that mines themselves are no longer creating many jobs due to automation

 

Tax avoidance, Tax evasion and illicit financial flows

The Mining houses should stop denying that they have been involved tax avoidance, tax evasion and illicit financial flows and it would have been better for them to keep quiet. The rebuttal to my last article on Lusaka Times on tax evasion and illicit financial flows in which the Chamber of Mines demanded evidence, was offensive to most Zambians to say the least as demonstrated by angry comments from readers.

The Chamber of Mines was effectively saying the individuals and institutions that I attributed comments to were all lying: The UN Secretary General, the Former South African President Tambo Mbeki, African Development bank, the OECD, Global financial integrity the African Union, Panama papers disclosures, the former Zambia Minister of finance, Mr. Alexander Chikwanda and his deputy and the ZRA audits by independent professional Accountants.

There is no doubt that common sense mining reforms- resulting in win-win situation- and not necessarily to the same extent as those in Tanzania can be achieved. Zambia and the mines need to cooperate and mines should desist from being too greedy as that constitutes a short term strategy and will back fire sooner or later.

The key for Zambia is to constitute a crack team of negotiators regardless of their political affiliation. There is a big pool of Zambians with expertise and who have served previous administrations whose skills should be drawn on. They should be head hunted locally and in the diaspora. This should not be a partisan issue. It is a nationalistic issue and for the benefit of our children and their children.

In the absence of Zambia making attempts to milk sufficient milk from our cash cow, the Mines, one cannot see how we will get out the debt trap that we are in now. Also, any reluctance to act with boldness will give credence to critics who are claiming that there is a lot of graft in the current administration.

The populist approach to mining is the way forward as it is the most politically and economically smart thing to do in the current environment to appeal to Zambians. It is time that the government called the mines’ threat bluff as they will not leave given the fact that the red metal is the mineral of the future. The handling of the inter- related issues of copper, debt and corruption may well determine who wins the 2021 elections.

The writer is a Chartered Accountant by profession and a financial management expert. He is a retired, independent and non partisan commentator/analyst. He has lived in the diaspora in England, South Africa and Botswana for over 25 years .

62 COMMENTS

  1. Wrong question Mr Nkonde.Its been 53yrs so we should actually be well beyond reliance on copper and into more advanced gadgets,sophisticated industries and higher up the economic food chain.

    Tis wrong for you to reinforce small minded vision of copper exports as alpha and omega,low ball expectations and nursing our bad culture of underachieving.Dream small -and life gives you small things.

    • We should be beyond copper reliance, but we are NOT so the question is relevant, please get your head out of your diaspora rectum.

    • @Enka,

      Do you really understand what you have posted on this matter? There is everything wrong with some of the agreements we signed with multi-nationals in the mining sector. They are nothing but criminal documents that deserves nothing but re-negotiations to benefit Zambians. We misunderstood liberalism hence over-zealously signing documents that have only turned into self condemnation to wanton national poverty.

    • Another well written article by Kalima Nkonde, excellent stuff! Well done ba Lsk Times! Well researched and well written.
      Some of us are on record of predicting this trend! Copper is the next Gold! China will ban fossil fuel cars and go electric by 2040, the UK and France as well. With more major economies going electric and the high demand for conductors and wiring behind this engineering we can expect Copper to rise maybe even to USD20,000 per ton! That is a realistic projection!
      How we make use of this up to us! But past actions have shown we don’t know what do with our own wealth! Let’s be wise!

    • Zambia must formulate its own best practices not copying Magufuli! Have sense and balls for a change Ye fickle Zambians!

    • What’s the evidence that Mangufuli is better than Edgar?
      Eddy is doing good this October, he even allowed UPND rally.

    • As much as i agree that we should not rely on copper, i also believe that copper is ours and should benefit us and not others. However, Lungu is too weak to do what great Magufuli is doing. He is not only weak, he is also corrupt and may be not as smart as Magufuli.

    • These guys are not stealing but looting the country. They dont care what happens to the public but want to make you believe they are good Christians

    • THE WAY ARABS HAVE DEVELOPED THEIR ECONOMIES SHOWS THE WAY.
      HAVING REALISED THAT OIL REVENUES WILL DWINDLE IN THE NEAR FUTURE THEY PUT IN MEASURES TO ADDRESS THIS. CONSIDER JUST THE WAY DUBAI HAS GROWN IN THE SPACE OF A FEW YEARS.
      1. LET US CONTROL HOW MUCH CAN BE REPATRIATED BY MINING COMPANIES
      2. LET US HAVE A SOVEREIGN WEALTH FUND
      3. LET US INTRODUCE THE DEATH PENALTY FOR MINISTERS, CIVIL SERVANTS AND MINE OFFICIALS INVOVED IN CORRUPT PRACTICES. THIS WILL PUT A STOP TO ALL TALK OF CORRUPTION. (JUST LOOK AT CHINA)

    • COPPER PRICES PLAYS GAMES WITH OIL PRICES
      =============================
      The equilibrium resultant is a Zero gain for us. The weight oil prices exerts on our shoulders cancels out our copper revenue gain. Besides, we do not actually sell our own copper but we buy this fuel.
      Zambia has no commodity treasury for expensive metals such as Gold. We needed stock piles of Gold and Copper.

    • Only Banana republics depend on commodities. Only a F00lish leadership will rely so much on commodities.

      Not even oil, platinum or gold are spared from fluctuating prices. Nigeria went into recession bcoz of over-reliance on oil.

      Lungu is clueless on how to diversify the economy. He would rather globe-trot to accumulate allowances.

    • Africans in general and Zambians in particular do not seem to understand that the resources in their countries belong to them. It’s OUR resources first and then the investors only partake in the shares. Unfortunately we act like the foreign investors are the ones who own the resources. And so we timidly do our negotiations on their terms, instead of the other way around. And the investors know it, that we’re too dumb and sleepy to know that since the resources belong to us, we should have the upper hand in negotiations. Instead, we give in to foreign investors’ unfair terms, just so we can say, “we have investors in our country,” even though we’re getting ripped off. Sometimes, if we express resistance to their unfair terms, the “investors” threaten to walk away. Why don’t…

    • (Continued)… we just tell them to walk away if they don’t like our terms? Zambia has very poor negotiators when it comes to negotiating business investment deals. Just watch the video, “Stealing Africa–Why Poverty?” on YouTube, to see what I mean. And then ,secondly, when these money hungry investors agree to a business deal, they never live up to their end of the bargain. For instance, they refuse to follow the stipulated government employment rules and regulations. And so Zambian workers are subjected to slave labor conditions, while making these foreign vultures rich. These so called foreign companies ignore any environmental regulations, and dump toxic waste in our rivers, on our land, and carelessly release toxic fumes that pollute the atmosphere, causing lung diseases in…

    • (Continued)… our people. and then on top of this, they even refuse to pay their fair share of taxes. The truth is they do all this because they know no one will hold them accountable. They wouldn’t dare do this in any developed western country. Most likely, it’s because the politicians who are supposed to hold them accountable are in their pockets, and so it’s poor Zambians who bear the short end of the stick. Unless patriotic leaders with a backbone of steal like Magufuli emerge in many countries in Africa, and Zambia in particular, the common Zambian has nothing to look forward to, in terms of the betterment of their lives. All we will be looking forward to are gaping holes in the ground all over the country, with nothing to show for it. What a shame.

  2. With the current band of thieves in the driving seat, it will be easier for a dog to grow horns than for the ordinary Zambian to benefit from these changes in the copper prices, so regime change in on the agenda. There is completely no financial discipline in PF, whereas the alternative (HH) is schooled in finances and does not need to dip his fingers in the public funds cooky jar.

  3. Research and you will find that the batteries of the future for electric vehicles are made from lithium. Just looknat your mobile fone batteries to start with….. have we encouraged exploration for lithium . Thats where the money is.

    • And no one is doing any research into conditions that grow Mukula. Not even our so called Universities are doing anything about it. Ba UNZA did something about mushroom production and they produce the spores. On Chikanda they have failed. One can become a Professor by researching on Mukula
      1. seed propagation
      2. seed dormancy and germination conditions
      3. soil type and eco-region
      4. crop-water requirements
      5.whether these conditions can be created artificially

  4. Lungu and his hungry gang will just be bribed to turn a blind eye…….come election time and corrupt lungu will sign anything for campaign funds and materials to give Zambia away like they did with mopani not paying current power prices for 40 years…

    • @Isaac Newton,

      Mukula or Umulombwa in Bemba can be propagated faster using stem cuttings. In villages of the Northern Province where I come from, people use cuttings of Mukula or Umulombwa to make a grass thatched bathroom called ulusasa. The bath water that is drained after every bath goes to water the cuttings which later produce shoots and grow into trees.

    • @Isaac Newton,

      We should certainly consider planting indigenous trees for our future generations considering that some of these trees take up to 6o years to mature. If you own a farm or even have a plot, plant some of these trees for your children and grandchildren who may later benefit from them.

  5. Totally agree with the writer. Trouble is to politicise everything. Our opposition leaders oppose everything, even progressive ideas.
    May be Kaunda had a point when he stopped multi party politics in Zambia. We waste a lot of time politicking instead of taking progressive actions for mother Zambia.

    • How can one support progressive ideas with the stealing going on…..how do you support someone like lungu who does not mind being called a theif everyday ???

      The man has never come put and defended himself at being called a theif and you expect any opposition to support a portrayed theif ????

    • We politicize everything because politics in Zambia is involved in everything…you do you think goes to negotiate those developmental agreements with the likes of KCM too keep the energy tariffs unchanged from as far back as 1997…who has these meetings behind closed doors????

  6. Zambians lack the business acumen to reap the benefits of buoyant metal prices. They expect multinationals to benefit instead, and trickle down a few ngwees through taxation, royalty and employment. This status quo will remain for the next two generations! This information I garnered from the 6 years I spent living ans working in Luanshya.

    • “The Tanzanian government has passed laws which require government to own 16% stake in mines. The other laws require Mining companies to train Tanzanians, give preference to local suppliers and to source from joint ventures between domestic and foreign firms if domestic suppliers cannot be found.”

      Regarding employment …in Zambia we are heading the other direction to the point where you have Indians manning the gates of some of these mines…we are also encouraging outsourcing agencies to come in and steal more from the miners not encouraging apprenticeships.

  7. Good article. Please act on it. Or bring back Amagande!!!!! We need money to build railway lines and dual carriage ways interlinking entire Zambia…. Not vi kaloba all the time?

    By the way, have the Chinese started working on the $3bn Petauke-Serenje railway line? What about progress on the Kitwe-Chingola dual carriage way? Nga Pedicle road and Solwezi roads?

    • There you are talking about projects that are overpriced…most of the money from copper will simply go back to pay debt for these grossly overpriced corrupt contracts.

  8. Of all the peoples in the world, I think Zambians are most ungrateful, in this regard, we top the charts. These mines are owned by private individuals and if you squeeze them so much, they may just leave this country. ECL has tried his best, it is impossible for him to implement all the development we want and even if he would implement everything we want we would still not appreciate . Why aren’t we questioning his predecessors? Zambians we watch too much celebrity TV and unfortunately it has become our reality. Zambia can not become America in 5 years. I wish I could beat some of you commenting negatively about Zambia. Let the author tell us how to run a mine profitably.

  9. We gave these mines back kuli ba mwisa. As soon as GRZ will try to go the Tanzanian way, there will be redundancies and talk of scaring the investors especially from the HH. Tanzanians have been united over this issue and are ready to die of hunger should the investors pull out…bottom line is they won’t take the copper from our ground should they decide to pull out.

    • Read the whole article…Tz went that way because they mines were stealing from them; in Zambia the mines have been stealing from them for donkey years to the point where EU felt guilty and donated machines to monitor ….you have leadership that lack priorities, easily corrupt with silver coins …in fact that lazy thing in State House is doing completely the opposite he is selling our shareholding stakes in the mines to the Israelis.

    • I don’t know why you want to oppose everything by me. Have you ever seen me commenting on the rubbish you spew on LT. Don’t just comment like a Kazuki.

  10. @Isaac Newton well said! What do the forestry department people do kanshi? Even when I was a kid a long time ago and that was a long time ago we were told that for every tree cut a charcoal burner is supposed to plant 2 but we are not seeing this happen! The charcoal burners pay a levy to the council but that money ends up somewhere else. There are no forest replenishment programs at all. We are talking about planting of indigenous trees species such as mukuni, mukwa, mukulu, musamba, mubanga, kaimbi etc and not exotic pine and eucalyptus species. Very disappointing state of affairs.

  11. “We must benefit from our God-given minerals and that is why we must safeguard our natural resource wealth to ensure we do not end up with empty mining pits,” Magufuli told a rally.
    Imagine Tz’s biggest Gold Mining house, Acacia Mining, was caught red handed with 10 times more gold in its export containers than the company had declared, as well as undeclared minerals such as iron and sulphur …the president spearheaded reforms to own 16% stake in every mine and slapped a $190 Billion tax bill on the company…this is what you call leadership.
    Meanwhile in Zambia, companies have getting away with undeclared minerals especially Gold…we have a Lazy Corrupt President who comes to the defence of the mines and interfers with court cases.

  12. The article may be too long to read but it strikes the nerve of our time.

    I fear that we are already in the situation that Tanzanians were in before Magufuli pt his foot down to protect the Gold mines. If we do not follow the same line of policy, we are doomed to be left with nothing in the long run. Apart from the proposals that the author has made, government should also ensure that all revenues from copper exports remain in a national sovereign wealth fund for the purpose of effective fiscal management.

    • The article is too long but you are quick to comment…is it not you who has been supporting these thieves policies? Today you are here issuing sober advice…even if the copper price went over $10,000 only peanuts will trickle down into the Treasury as these crooks have been signing agreement after agreement behind our backs even the miners who dig this stuff underground would not benefit as they are employed outsourced agencies.

    • I’m quick to comment because it is the same old problem and we have debated this issue several times before here, to a point of exhaustion. Don’t try to put me in the wrong league, my friend: I do not shield corruption. In all my comments, I have always called for transparency and government responsibility in the management of our resources in order for us to obtain our fair share as a nation.

      The good thing is that everyone can use the search engine to verify my opinion in my previous comments on related news – and they will see how consistent I have been.

  13. The article is too long but you are quick to comment…is it not you who has been supporting these thieves policies? Today you are here issuing sober advice…even if the copper price went over $10,000 only peanuts will trickle down into the Treasury as these crooks have been signing agreement after agreement behind our backs even the miners who dig this stuff underground would not benefit as they are employed outsourced agencies.

  14. The corrupt PF leader lungu who presides over overbearing cases of waistage of state funds bordering on corruption , who is being called a theif every day is on record saying he hears ruhmers that precious metals like gold and cobalt are a by product of copper extraction…..a fact that even a grade 9 pupil knows…

  15. No doubt Nkonde has a very valid point and the economic redemption of Zambia most definitely would come from taking bold steps along the said avenue. Mr Nkode has not shunned diversification into other sectors other than mining as some bloggers have urgued, but has chosen to analyse with empirical evidence from Tanzania and from the new technological innovations that we can maximize our share of benefits from our copper. Equally sensible is the call for all regardless of political affiliation to take a patriotic stance for the future our country. Its only mind boggling to see that despite milleges the whole idea can add to the political standings of the presidential aspirants , not even HH have ever stated issues that way. Is it a sign that him too would give away our minerals to his…

  16. … sponsors and so he fears to articulate how he would handle the mining sector better to ensure much more meaningful revenue is generated from it to benefit more Zambians and generally better our economy?

    • Spy, you’re the only one who has made sense of what the article alluded to and I couldn’t agree more. Others just made noise within analyzing facts. The article is clear. What Tanzania is doing is clear. Either we cut loose the thieving investors and prepare for the worse while we put measures in place to reform the country or it’s business as usual with no hope for the future. It is so disappointing that the opposition can’t articulate something like this. It seems mouths are bigger than their brains. That’s why I have no faith in any of the opposition leaders to run our country. My vote is available for that one opposition leader who will impress me. As for HH, putting him in the same sentence with mining is a disaster awaiting to explode!

  17. At the moment formal workers are the biggest tax payers in Zambia.
    We are contributing more than half of our pay through various contributions.
    Companies hide their profits, like KCM they can’t pay company tax coz they claim to be making losses.

  18. Lungu is the new RB. Remember how RB used his sons for deals? Remember how RB cried when he lost, that crying wast in vain. Remember how RB used private companies to print even pants and sweets. Thats what Edgar is doing with private companies like lamise and savenda.mukula business and road contracts. Lungu is now a tycoon all big contracts go thru him. His so dirty he can’t enforce legislation to force mines to contribute equally to the economy. Lusambo is already received envelopes from mining houses no wonder KCM has the balls to subcontract it’s own employees.

  19. Ok Kalima Nkonde, you are hired as our negotiator with the Mines. Please set your patrioric fees and we are ready to go. Are you subcontracting underfive too? If you do, contract cancelled…..kikikikikikk

  20. Ok Kalima Nkonde, you are hired as our negotiator with the Mines. Please set your patriotic Magufuli fees and we are ready to go. Are you subcontracting underfive too? If you do, contract cancelled…..kikikikikikk

  21. Zambia’s biggest problem is lack of patriotism i.e. Putting the interests of the country above all else. we need to change our mind set . lets be patriotic my fellow citizens

  22. ba lungu nga balyamo ninshi chapwa.for him everything is fire tender.kwacha is depreciating due to corruption.taking the money offshore.usel—-less black presidents

  23. Problem in Zambia is that Lungu might be good and humble, but the majority of his ministers are stupid corrupt and lazy but thieving. Since they cannot formulate policy, they rely of allowances and trying to appease the president. If we had smart ministers like Miyanda general and Mangande under Lungu, things would be great.

  24. OPPOSITION IS TO BLAME …EVEN PF IS GUILTY BECAUSE BEHAVED IN THE SAME WAY WHEN IT WAS IN THE OPPOSITION….POLITICISING EVERYTHING…!!!!!!!!

  25. “… so far the government has just shown boldness with regard to decisions affecting Zambians like the removal of subsidies on electricity,fuel …” This is outrageous. First, fuel pump prices are equal for all motorists. Second, electric power tariffs have been revised to include mining companies. Hence, mining companies are now contributing more tax than they used to in the past. The tax break for mining companies was not totally unfounded. It was justified in order to attract huge investments to the mining sector.

  26. When we have removed shameless greed, corruption and have a crop patriotic and insightful leadership who genuinely care for the development of the nation then this country will be well on the way of holistic national development. Even the well meaning policies will not be still – born.

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