The ZCCM-IH Investment Holdings says phase one of the Consolidated Gold Company Limited, gold processing project in Rufunsa has commenced.
ZCCM-IH Chief Executive Officer Mabvuto Chipata says the phase involves ten gold milling plants with a processing capacity of 30 tonnes of ore per day, and a targeted average of 7.5 kilograms gold production per month.
Mr Chipata said the next stage of the phase is also underway which involves the setting up of the gold vat leaching plant in Rufunsa.
He said the plant is aimed at chemically processing the gold stock piles from two old gold mines, and concentrates from the gold milling plants.
Mr Chipata said the vat leaching plant which is scheduled to be completed by June 2020 will have a processing capacity of 8, 000 tons ore material per leach, and a targeted gold production of 17.5 kilograms per month.
He said the total targeted gold production envisaged is 25 kilograms per month from both the milling and the vat leaching plants.
Mr Chipata said a total of approximately $3.15 million has been injected in these two production lines, following the successful completion and launch of a gold laboratory set at a total cost of $250, 000 in Lusaka in March 2020.
He said a total of approximately $3.5 million will be spent on the Rufunsa project.
Mr Chipata undertook a site visit in the first week of May 2020 to check on the progress of the project, and expressed happiness that the project was on course, despite a few delays in bringing in the required equipment from manufacturers outside the country due to the covid-19 pandemic.
He said that ZCCM-IH looks to officially launching the project by July 2020 once a few gold ore bars are produced.
CGCZ Chief Executive Officer Faisal Keer who accompanied Mr Chipata stated that the business model involves working with various artisanal and small scale gold miners in providing access to the milling plants, with the view to increase the gold production.
He added that CGCZ is also helping licensed small scale gold miners with mining technical expertise and safety, and also providing access to earth moving machinery in order to increase gold ore production that is subsequently processed using the milling plants.
Phase two of the project which will involve setting-up the same model in Mumbwa District is expected to start before the end of the year.
CGCZ is a gold processing and trading Joint Venture partnership between Karma Mining Services and Rural Development (55%) and ZCCM-IH (45%).
Hooops so it’s not a Zambian government company kanshi? It will be liquidated before 2021 elections.
What did you think? For anything which works in Zambia the has to be an India, White man or a Chinese….. thats the only way a Zambian is able to work,
Funny enough they are people who say nationalize the mines so that Zambians cam manage them. What a joke.
Even a simple vat leach a white man has to be involved
Even a simple vat leach project, which just a hole in the ground a white man has to be involved.
I thought the number of illegal activities in mining should have opened the eyes of the government to see that the local people have the thirst to do the job but govt ain’t providing the right tools to encourage the mining to be legal. The more govt pushes it’s own people out in favor of foreigners the more it’s people are further pushed into poverty and resorting to even more illegal activities to get what govt is denying them. The mentality that only foreigners can do the job is really demeaning the potential of the zambian people. When will Zambia turn from an extraction zone to a trading zone? Do you want the zambian people to start fighting for another independence which is economic liberation? We subject zambians to getting petty jobs that will end once the white man extracts all…
Blah, blah, blah,….ZCCM, when will our mines in your charge make a meaningful contribution to our GDP. Project this, project that…..and all you end up doing is selling off large percentages of the mines to ‘investors.’
We need our resources. Look the people are poorer after Independence because of your failures.
Thank you Mabvuto Sakala for your hard work. Unfortunately you will soon be reporting to PF cadres, from top to bottom PF have no respect for business and yet they claim that they want to create jobs and “more money in your pockets” as stated by Sata.
We were told Zambian ownership prioritised. Alas, this Karma Mining Services has 55%. Secondly, has the ore body been properly delineated and researched? It appears ZCCM-IH is conducting its operations like artisanal miners who go straight to dig without feasibility studies.