By NCHIMUNYA MIYOBA
Chapamo Minerals Processing Limited Director Kelvin Tembo says works has not resumed at the infamous black mountain because they are still putting in place safety measures.
Mr Tembo said the company can’t take safety measures set by the ministry of mines and minerals through the safety department lightly because they are meant to safe guard lives of the small scale miners.
Mr Tembo said the scale miners learnt it the hard way when 11 miners died in an accident in June this year.
He said the association is not in hurry to resume operations adding that there is need to ensure that all safety measures are adhere to before commencement of operations at the site.
“Currently nothing is happening at the site. We are not in a hurry to start. We learnt it the hard way when we lost some small scale miners,” he said.
Mr Tembo said bidding exercise to fence the area and the provision of closed circuit television surveillance attracted a lot of companies adding that interviews where conducted on Friday last week.
He said once the fencing and installation of CCTV is done, the Engineering Institute of Zambia will be expected to do a Geo technical assessment ascertain the stability of the mountain.
Last month Mines and Minerals Minister Richard Musukwa assured the nation that government will ensure that all mining operations are conducted in an orderly manner to avoid accidents and damage to the environment.
Further emphasising that government will not hesitate to take action against non compliant license holders
