Eight months after it was shut for rampant pollution by a team led by former Copperbelt minister Elisha Matambo, Chinese-owned mining processing company, U-Metals in Chingola has resumed operations.
At the time of it being shut down last October, Matambo ordered for the arrest of U-Metals owners for defying a mine closure directive made by then Green Economy and Environment Minister Mposha in August 2025. Mposha has ordered U-Metals Limited to close indefinitely due to severe environmental breaches which include operating a poorly-constructed tailings dam situated less than 50 meters from a local stream, Kalilo, posing significant environmental and public health risks to a key tributary to the Kafue River.
U-Metals’ pollution of Chingola stems from the mineral processing which indiscriminately dumbs acidic waste which is hazardous to the environment. Some of the outskirts of Chingola along the Solwezi Road, once home to flourishing farming blocks which settled a lot of people and supplied fresh products are now being turned into hotspots for illegal mining activities.
The tributaries of the Kafue River are becoming victims of growing incidents of pollution with constant spillage which undetectably moves miles upstream the River which is the key lifeblood for many people and animals in the country!
“We used to grow maize in the rainy season here and then we do gardens (growing vegetables) in June (winter season) but we can’t do that anymore because the soil is contaminated by copper acid while the dambo has also dried up because the Chinese tipper trucks are dumping copper soils here,” Kingfred Malao, an affected peasant farmer explains as he points to a stretched dambo that was once source of livelihoods for the over 2,300 settlers in the area.
As Zambia pushes for the record three million tonnes of copper by 2033, some towns like Chingola are experiencing an exponential growth of illegal mining, mostly driven by Chinese demand for metals. Chingola hosts dozens of Chinese unregulated smelters and tailings dams where copper processing is done in one of the most environmentally damaging manners!
Among the most polluting mining operations includes U–Metals where the damage to the environment is already thorough and comprehensive. Schools near the area are often shut, people displaced; the once fertile land can no longer support any form of plant life. For compensation of as low as K5,000 (US $263), some local farmers in Chingola are being forced out of the land they have called home. Some farmers with commercial muscle are threatening legal action to seek redress.
While authorities in Zambia Environmental Management Agency (ZEMA) and Water Resources Management Authority (WARMA) have both maintained that U-Metals mining operations are illegal, mining activities have resumed in the aftermath of the dissolution of Cabinet. “Tipper trucks have started coming again and you can see there is something happening there because even in their smelters, there is smoke coming from there,” a farmer near the U-Metals Neddy Nzofwa said.
According to Chingola Municipal Council, the fines imposed on U-Metals are within the law. “We have had engagements with U-Metals which is at the centre of this pollution and we have slapped them with a K120,000 which they have since paid,” according to Chingola District Agriculture Coordinator Stephen Monze.
U-Metals representative, a Mr Toni said the company had been cleared and will resume mining activity soon. When reminded that there is, in fact, mining activities taking place, he said it is just preparations. But when pressed on why the compensation such as building a new clinic, sinking boreholes to the affected farmers remain undelivered, he cut the line and did not respond to subsequent phone calls and text messages.
The Chinese are experts at defying local laws. In DRC they are all over mining everyting. The public should protest because government is usually bribed for such operations to continue. These guys want to feed their own customers whom they promised these metals and may have paid upfront. The media must be vigilant. Its your land that is being polluted and its you who will suffer after the miners are done and gone.