Maravi

Zambia to produce 1 million tonnes of copper by 2015
By Henry Sinyangwe
Tue 02 Apr. 2013, 14:00 CAT

MINES permanent secretary Victor Mutambo says Zambia would produce up to 1 million tonnes of copper by 2015 up from 750,000 tonnes produced last year. He said the country's mining industry was growing at a fast rate considering increased expansion by mining companies.

"There has been tremendous performance from the mining sector. We have seen huge investments in the sector and a lot of expansion projects have been ongoing with Konkola, Mopani and Kasanshi mines… and equally production is also currently rising steadily," Dr Mutambo said.

"For example, last year, we were talking between 715,000-750,000 tonnes of copper produced, we are thinking going into 2014, 2015, Zambia should be reaching 1 million tonnes of copper."

He said government was also trying to put up a mechanism so that it was able to know the value of the metals being exported.

Dr Mutambo said if one was mining in the country and they were earning foreign exchange, it was in order that part of that is ploughed back into the Zambian economy.

He said government was trying to ensure that the country got a better share from the proceeds in the mining sector as opposed to having all the money outside the country.

"Zambia will continue to be a favourable destination in terms of investment. And what the government is trying to do is to make sure that as much as we encourage investment, we also try to get a fair value of it and we can only do that by stepping up the monitoring mechanism in terms of what is being produced, how much is being exported and also how much we are getting from whatever we are exporting which is a cardinal issue," said Dr Mutambo in an interview.

Labels: COPPER, VICTOR MUTAMBO

posted by MrK @ 6:01 PM