Friday, March 29, 2024

ZCCM-IH to appeal court ruling backing Vedanta in KCM mine dispute

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Zambia’s state mining arm ZCCM-IH plans to appeal a court ruling in favour of Vedanta, which has sought arbitration in a dispute over its jointly owned copper mine that is facing liquidation, the mining minister said.

India-based Vedanta has been locked in a protracted dispute with the Zambian government since May 2019, when Lusaka appointed a liquidator for the mine.

“ZCCM-IH has already indicated that they are appealing because they are not happy with the court judgment,” Mining Minister Richard Musukwa told parliament on Thursday.
Last week, a Zambian court ordered a halt to liquidation proceedings for Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) to allow Vedanta and ZCCM-IH, which owns 20% of the operation, to proceed to arbitration.

Potential buyers of KCM were awaiting a resolution to the dispute, Musukwa said, adding that steps taken by the government should not be “considered as nationalism”.

“It is still the government’s wish to find a new equity investor with technical and financial capacity to recapitalise the mine and operate it effectively,” he said.

Vedanta was not immediately available for comment.

16 COMMENTS

  1. What are the reasons for Govt to appeal to the Supreme Court? Surely in terms of the KCM Agreement disputes should be resolved thru Arbitration. No new Investor will buy KCM Assets until the dispute between Vedanta and ZCCM-IH is resolved. Govt is merely buying time by making this frivolous Appeal. The writing is on the wall.

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  2. You PF can only win if you appeal to Simusamba, not any other judge.
    Just sue Chi Milingo Lungu for receiving millions for nothing, The money paid to that thief liquidator could have been given to useless ECZ.

  3. What are you not satisfied about the judgement? Don’t just appeal for the sake of it or to just look like you’re thinking and yet your brain is full of silicone. If you don’t have solid grounds of appeal better not. What you should have reviewed was the seemingly fraudulent sale of the mines. There seems to be a lot of breeches in the sales agreement

  4. We told L@zy Lungu and his former primary school minister Musukwa to do things by the book and that its the taxpayer that will pay dearly they never listened ….now they have stripped the company and literally keeping it at float at a great cost to the taxpayer again.

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  5. I wonder what the learned men and women at ZCCM-IH are paid for. Appealing against the judgement will just complicate matters. For a longtime ZCCM-IH has been asleep. We had the issue of FQM the nation has never been told how it was concluded. We are a nation of jokers. Look at DR Congo, despite its many administrative and security challenges, they at least have managed to bring sanity to their mining industry. For us the Mines Minister has been very unreliable in furnishing the nation with correct picture of happenings in the mining sector of the economy. The mining sub sector is difficult to manage and the ministries and officials charged with the responsibility of monitoring mining activities are supposed to be very knowledgeable and on top of things. Otherwise it will be crying like…

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  6. We have faith in the legal system. We are glad the correct process is being followed. What is shocking is that the upnd diasporan mongrels commenting above are the first ones to support hh for seeking legal redress and yet when the government does it these traitors start criticising. This my friends is how tribalism works. Upnd diasporan tribalist supported deserve to be lined and and shot in the head. I will gladly pull the triggers

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  7. Who will buy the mine that is under legal disputes.
    Musukwa has no capacity to handle such a high profile case.
    KCM is heading to a complete fall.

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  8. What happens when the SC uphold the AC judgement? You appeal to the devil? Amatwi you have but ukumfwa muli finkuula. You were advised even before your diahrrea became chronic but as usual muleya na mafi kubuko and out of power straight to prison.

  9. Why should the mine face liquidation when the main issue is political interference and greed by PF thugs? Because of this confusion, the mines in Zambia are missing out in optimising on the current copper price which is at its highest level since 2007.

  10. The KCM saga is turning from a terrible decision into a national disaster, time for the Minister to start rectifications is now before the Titanic hits into the ice berg and the entire enterprise sinks with innocent workers on board. Have a heart for once, livelihoods and peoples’ futures depend on the mine being genuinely revived without corruption. For once, put the interests of Zambia before your pockets please twapapata…

  11. Why should the mine face liquidation when the main issue is political interference and greed by PF thugs? Because of this confusion, the mines in Zambia are missing out in optimising on the current copper price which is at its highest level since 2007.

  12. ZCCZ-IH’s Appeal is baseless and is just an abuse of the Court System. The only way to avoid Arbitration is for ZCCZ-IH to appeal to the State Captured Concourt which has no jurisdiction in this Dispute. The Govt cannot win this Case against Vedanta and without going thru Arbitration in terms of KCM Shareholders Agreement. Vedanta is vindicated in this dispute. Time will tell.

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