TWO South Korean companies have indicated interest in entering the Zambian mining and energy industries as soon as they conclude consultations. According to the statement released to the media by Nicky Shabolyo, the Press Secretary at the Zambian High Commission in South Africa, representatives from KEPCO KPS and LG International disclosed their interests when they met Zambia’s High Commissioner-Designate to South Africa, His Excellency Mr. Emmanuel Mwamba in Pretoria yesterday.

KEPCO KPS Chief Representative, Mr. Jason Lee told the High Commissioner that his company had experience in thermal, nuclear, hydro and solar power plant maintenance technology. He said KEPCO KPS has previously undertaken projects in Madagascar, India, Uruguay, Pakistan, Australia, Philippines Mexico, Bangladesh, Kenya and Morocco and has been working with South Africa’s power utility company, ESCO since 2008.

Mr. Lee said they would be happy to meet relevant officials in Zambia to discuss modalities of how his company could get involved in the Zambian market. He said KEPCO KPS was finalising collection of information so that they could understand Zambia’s situation before making a formal proposal.

“We are ready to travel to Zambia anytime as part of our study before we can confidently make a formal proposal to enter Zambia,” Mr. Lee said.
KEPCO KPS are also looking at maintenance of transmission lines apart from power stations.

And Chief Representative at LG International, Johannesburg office, Mr. Dow Lee said his company was involved in a wide range of projects and had identified various areas of interest in Zambia which include the copper, coal and gold mining sectors.

Mr. Lee said he has been to Zambia before and understood the general situation of the mining sector but would like to travel back to check if opportunities still existed. He expressed concern at the current low copper prices which he said were the major hindrance to exploring the sector.

HE explained that LG International trades in products used in processing gold and believe statistics show that Zambia held good potential for a good market for such products.
LG International, which is a sister company to LG Electronics, is into natural resource development and industrial infrastructure business in emerging countries with growth potential.

In response, His Excellency Mr. Mwamba advised LG International to look at the current low copper prices as an opportunity in itself. Mr. Mwamba pointed out that prudent investors in the commodity market opted to acquire assets when prices were low because they understood that the trend was such that prices for commodities fluctuated.

“You should not be discouraged but instead be encouraged and see an opportunity in the low prices. An investor will always want to enter the market when they can buy at a low price. Commodities are an investment for the long term and you should realize that prices always fluctuate,” Mr. Mwamba said.

He noted that it would be important for LG International to make gold processing materials available in Zambia as this would encourage value addition to the metal unlike the current situation in which it is exported in its raw form.

“We need to start adding value to our raw materials and the Government has set out on this mission so that we can meaningfully benefit from our resources,” He said.
Mr. Mwamba told the two representatives that the High Commission in Pretoria will facilitate their visit to Zambia by arranging meetings with the relevant offices.

The High Commissioner said the proposal by KEPCO KPS was convenient as the country was facing a huge power deficit partly resulting from some old power plants which could not operate at their optimum capacity.

He said transmission lines posed another challenge as most of them were old while they also did not have a wide reach across the country.

“Most of our power stations are old. They can no longer function fully and urgently need to be mordenised. Apart from being old, our transmission lines need to be extended across the country.”

Mr. Mwamba commended KEPCO KPS on their policy of embracing local labour in their projects as this encouraged skills transfer.

REA has since entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the University of Zambia (UNZA) to conduct an assessment on the possibility of establishing a wind turbine in Lunga district of Luapula province.

Lunga, a newly created district, has been identified as the point of call for the green project due to its favourable wind regime as it is located on the Bangweulu plains where wind flows freely on the plain terrain.

REA chief executive officer Geoffrey Musonda said at a media briefing in Lusaka yesterday that K630, 000 would be spent on the 12-month exercise to ascertain the possibility of setting up a wind turbine in the area.

Mr Musonda said REA would also construct a 300 Mega Watt (MW) solar power plant in Lunga which could be used in a hybrid format if the average wind speed was favourable to support the turbine.

Wind is one of the least exploited renewable energy resources in Zambia because wind speed is generally low in most parts of the country.

“However, there is a possibility that there are areas in Zambia which have high wind speeds especially those in plain areas and near large water bodies like lakes.

“It is against this background that REA and UNZA have embarked on this one-year project to study the wind profile of Lunga district,” Mr Musonda said.

He said REA’s collaboration with UNZA was strategic as it would enhance mutual interest and complementary capacities in the delivery of sustainable energy.

Mr Musonda said the Lunga project would enhance the provision of sustainable energy solutions for rural areas in line with the Government policy on alternative sources of electricity to ensure security of supply.

He said the equipment which would be used during the Lunga project was durable enough to be used for similar explorations in other parts of the country which could possess high winds.

UNZA acting vice chancellor Enala Mwase said the institution’s collaboration with REA would be spearheaded through the Technology Department and Advisory Unit (TDAU) of UNZA.

“There is a power generation challenge in our country arising from a weak national energy mix. It is therefore imperative that we explore other sources of power generation,” she said.

Professor Mwase said the initiative was a good example of a beneficial partnership between academia and the industry in finding solutions to societal needs.

However, a rescue operation yesterday managed to evacuate the miners who were all unhurt.

The sub-station caught fire around19:00 hours causing a black out to the plant as the stand-by generators could not automatically switch on arising from technical reasons. This situation led to all the miners underground including those in the cage to be trapped.

Kitwe District Commissioner Chanda Kabwe and Mineworkers Union of Zambia (MUZ) President Nkole Chishimba confirmed, in separate interviews, to Times of Zambia the trapping of the miners underground.

Mr Kabwe said the miners were trapped around 19:00 hours when the sub-station caught fire.

He said the rescue operation went on from the time the fire erupted to yesterday morning when all the trapped miners were evacuated.

He said all the trapped miners were safely evacuated but that investigations to establish the exact cause of the fire were still underway.

Mr Chishimba who expressed sadness over the miners being trapped underground said the union received information around 19:11 hours that the 11Kv sub-station had caught fire.

“284 miners who were underground working from their respective sites and some in the cage were all trapped.

“This is a sad situation because underground operations depend on electricity and there must be adequate preparedness for eventualities such as what happened last night (Wednesday),”Mr Chishimba said.

MCM Public Relations Manager Cephas Sinyangwe who also confirmed the incident attributed the fire to a power surge.

He said in a statement that Mindolo North Shafts experienced a power surge that resulted in a power failure at the two shafts and the subsequent fire in a sub-station on surface.

“All the miners that were working in these shafts have been accounted for, are safe and none of the employees was in any danger throughout the incident.

“The company has a full set of procedures for power failures of this nature and the incident was handled according to those procedures,” he said.

Mr Sinyangwe said MCM worked in collaboration with Copperbelt Energy Corporation and managed to restore power at 09:00 hours yesterday.

BANK of Zambia (BoZ) Governor Denny Kalyalya says the narrowing balance of payments has constrained the central bank’s capacity to build foreign reserves resulting in the volatility of the kwacha.

He has, however, said that the BoZ is determined to significantly build reserves to enable the country meet its external debt obligations.

Dr Kalyalya (right) said building reserves requires a positive balance of payment, which is currently in the negative owing to the fall in commodity prices on the international market.

“One of the things we try to do is build reserves but now building those reserves means you have a positive balance of payment. Unfortunately, exports have been coming down so the overall current account balance has been in deficit and it has been narrowing,” Dr Kalyalya said.

He added: “So our ability to buy foreign exchange on the market has been constrained because the central bank is not expected to be looking for money on the market as you are aware we are not ordinary players.”

Dr Kalyalya said this on a programme dubbed “Government Forum” on Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation’s (ZNBC) Radio Two monitored in Lusaka yesterday.

He said if the central bank went ahead to look for money on the market, other financial players would question the move to secure its resources openly.

“The central bank is working around to build up reserves to ensure that external obligations are met as and when they are due because if we default, it creates other pressures. So by allowing the exchange rate to adjust is in itself a mechanism in which you would try to insulate the economy from some of these pressures,” he said.

Dr Kalyalya said for Zambia to get more dollars and stabilise the exchange rate, it will need to export more services, obtain external loans or grants.

He said the country needs to get concessional loans from multilateral institutions as well as rely on foreign direct investment to help stabilise the exchange rate.

Dr Kalyalya said the capital flows for many of the emerging and developing economies have been affected by the slow growth of the global economy.

He reiterated his call for diversification from copper, which is the country’s foreign exchange earner, to agriculture and other factors.

He said Zambia has enough arable land, which can be used for investment into agriculture and not rely on copper.