Maravi

UN agency to focus on mining projects

UN agency to focus on mining projects
By Joan Chirwa
Tuesday June 12, 2007 [04:00]

ICS Copper Systems Limited has entered into a joint venture with North Western Plant Hire Limited to develop the Mokambo copper/cobalt mine, about 16 kilometers north of Mufulira town on the Copperbelt Province. And a United Nations autonomous agency has broadened its focus from the agricultural sector support to mining projects in Southern Africa, owing to high prices for base metals on the world market.

According to Mineweb, North Western Plant Hire Limited is a Zambian firm holding a 30 per cent interest but ICS president and chief executive officer Graham Chisholm said the company has the option to increase its stake to 80 per cent.

Chisholm said all things being equal, plant construction at Mokambo could start by May 2008, with first production anticipated by the end of next year.

The Mokambo area, at the northern end of the Mufulira Syncline, is a famous geological structure where Glencore International AG and First Quantum Minerals (FQM)’s Mopani Copper Mines (MCM) Plc operate the Mufulira Mine.

Mokambo was drilled in the 1970s and boasts of a historical resource that suggests 22 million tonnes of sulphide ore with grades of 1.45 per cent to 1.72 per cent of copper.

About 70 per cent of the investors in the Mokambo project are British and Swiss institutional and high net worth individuals and plans are underway to secure an Environmental Impact Assessment report from the Environmental Council of Zambia, receive leaching and ore permeability reports and complete a Project Feasibility Study.

And the UN Common Fund for Commodities (CFC) will soon start giving out funds for the development of the mining sector in the Southern African region.

To access funding, countries have to be members of an International Commodity Body (ICB), which is made up of producers and consumers of a commodity such as the Lead and Zinc Study Group.

Zambia, along with Namibia and South Africa, are the only African countries affiliated to ICB and are the beneficiaries of the fund.

“The region has more minerals than agricultural activities due to perennial droughts,” said CFC’s spokesperson Charles Jama as quoted by Mineweb.

“This is a very good investment.”

As part of its new five-year funding cycle, the Amsterdam-based fund will set aside US$200 million for 2008-2012 to support base minerals mining in the region after sponsoring only five projects in the minerals sector out of around 250 in its history.

It will also work towards ensuring that the region comes up with uniform standards on safeguarding the environment.

Jama said the fund would also promote value addition and beneficiation of base minerals in the region.

Labels: MINING, UN

posted by MrK @ 5:47 AM