By Abigail Chaponda in London, United Kingdom
Minister of Mines and Mineral Development Hon. Richard Musukwa on Monday addressed Europe’s largest Mining Investment event, and invited investors to take advantage of the stable polices and vast mineral resource potential in Zambia.
Giving an overview of the investment opportunities in Zambia at the Mines and Money Conference in London, Hon. Musukwa highlighted that ratings by globally reputed institutions attest to the conducive and competitiveness of Zambia as the best destination for investment, despite the global and domestic challenges.
He cited the World Banks’ 2020 Ease of Doing Business Report which has rated Zambia as one of the top 10 best performers in Africa, ranking 7th in Africa, and 5th in Sub-Saharan Africa.
“Zambia is a favourable investment destination for mineral development and mining. We have unexploited vast potential mineral resources aside from the traditional base metals in the country”, he said.
Speaking during the same event, ZCCM Investments Holdings Plc (ZCCM-IH) Chief Executive Officer Mr. Mabvuto Chipata has said even though Copper remains ZCCM-IH mainstay commodity, the institution is focusing on commodity diversification within the sector.
Mr. Chipata stated that ZCCM-IH is now focusing on developing Greenfield projects in other minerals such as gold, manganese, vanadium and cobalt among others, in an effort to de-risk the portfolio and create new revenue streams.
“ZCCM-IH is working in collaboration with the Ministry of Mines to ensure formalisation of artisanal and small scale gold miners, and also participate at a large scale in terms of mining as a company as well. We have since started with preliminary exploration works on a potential large scale mining operation for gold in a prime area with a target to start operations next year” he said.
Mr. Chipata added that Government is promoting the setting up of businesses within Zambia to utilizing minerals in the manufacturing of finished products. He gave an example of iron ore deposits that remain unexploited and can be used in the iron and steel industry with SADC and COMESA regions offering ready markets.
The Mines and Money Conference opened its doors to the public on Monday 25th November 2019 and will run until 28th November 2019.
