Investing in African Mining: Zambia (Final)

THIS POST WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED DECEMBER 20, 2009

Investing in African Mining: Zambia (Final)

The Zambia Development Agency (ZDA) has been set up to further economic development in
the country. The Agency produced an  INVESTORS GUIDE HANDBOOK which in detail describes investment process with all peculiarities: who is considered an investor, what are investor incentives, how to get permits, what are the taxes, etc. The Web-site promotes mining as follows:
“Zambia has enormous reserves of Copper-Cobalt ore and the country is the fourth largest producer of copper metal. Gold, Nickel, Lead-Zinc, Iron and Manganese are also mined. In addition Zambia is endowed with very high quality of Gemstones - Emerald, Amethyst, Aquamarine, Rubies, Garnets, and Diamonds - which are still unexploited. With the privatisation of the mining sector, potential opportunities have become very attractive.”

Copper mining, as it obvious from the previous post, is a major sector of mining industry in the country. Here is Zambia’s position in the world exporters:

Source: World Copper Factbook 2007, ICSG
Copper mining has a long and tumultuous history. This detailed paper:
FOR WHOM THE WINDFALLS? Winners & losers in the privatisation of Zambia’s copper mines
describes the history and current state of copper mining in Zambia, one of the illustrations:

One of world’s largest sources of copper ore is found on the border of Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, in a region known as the Copperbelt.

“The Zambian Copperbelt accounts for approximately 46 percent of the production and reserves of the Central African Copperbelt, the largest and highest grade sediment-hosted stratiform copper province known on Earth. Deposits in the Zambian Copperbelt are hosted by the Neoproterozoic Katangan Supergroup, a relatively thin (~5 km) basinal succession of predominantly marginal marine and terrestrial metasedimentary rocks that lacks significant volumes of igneous rocks. The stratigraphic architecture of the Katangan Supergroup in the Zambian Copperbelt is comparable to that of Phanerozoic rift systems.” … more is here
Equinox Resources NL  provides a good description of the Cooperbelt in their ZAMBIA: EXPLORATION POTENTIAL FOR IRON OXIDE.

Copper mining in Zambia is a successful operation – which may be judged by this example – First Quantum operations (sourced from First Quantum Minerals Ltd. 2008 Annual report). The company operates Kansashi copper-gold mine:

Source: Kansashi Fact Sheet

 

And these operating results:

Another mineral: Coal -- is active in Zambia since 1967. The main source is the Maamba coal mine (78.2 million tons of coal reserves), an opencast operation in the southern part of the country near Lake Kariba. It is owned by  ZCCM, a government entity. The mine produced about 600,000 tons of coal a year in the 1980s, but due to lack of financing it was down to 100,000 tons. Just yesterday, it was announced that Singapore’s Nava Bharat Pte Ltd took over the running of Zambia’s Maamba Collieries and signed an agreement to build a 300-megawatt thermal power plant.
There lots of other resources on Zambia mining and investments, some of them are:

• Zambia Budget 2010
• Mines and Minerals Development Bill 2008
• Foreign direct investment (FDI) overview, selected years by UNCTAD
• Dr Mpande at the School of Mines, UNZA has put together this wonderful chart showing that Zambia's tax take is in effect negative given the VAT rebates. Zambia-Mining-RevenuePresentation to Economic Association of Zambia Forum on Mining tax in Zambia
• Standard Bank - Zambia Annual Economic Outlook
• Undermining development? Copper mining in Zambia – a report analyzing Konkola Copper mine developments
• China-Africa Economic Relations: The Case of Zambia
• THE GEOLOGY AND MINERAL RESOURCE Kasempa Mining Ltd
• Munali Nickel Project, Zambia