Japanese firm to help Zambia find mineral deposits

Japanese firm to help Zambia find mineral deposits
By Fridah Zinyama
Wed 02 Dec. 2009, 04:00 CAT

JAPANESE Ambassador to Zambia Hideto Mitamura has said a Japanese company has planned to work with the Zambian government to accurately map out areas which have mineral resources but not yet identified.

Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Cooperation (JOGMEC) have state-of-the-art Remote Sensing technology which can be used for surface detection of minerals. During a press briefing at the Japanese embassy on Monday, ambassador Mitamura said he was hoping to encourage more Japanese investors to come and invest in Zambia.

“Japan is currently the only country in the world that has this kind of technology (Remote Sensing) and we are transferring this technology to our co-operating partners in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region,” he said.

Ambassador Mitamura explained that although Zambia had managed to map out most of the areas in the country which had different mineral resources, other areas could be discovered using the Remote Sensing technology.

“JOGMEC currently has its Geological Remote Sensing Centre in Botswana and is offering training to SADC member countries on using this technology,” he said.
Ambassador Mitamura said so far, four Zambian geological engineers from the Geological Survey department had received training on the new technology.

“We are particularly interested in Zambia because of the vast mineral resources that the country has,” said Ambassador Mitamura.