By BUUMBA CHIMBULU

A POSITIVE policy on exploration is required to attract new investors in the mining industry in North-Western Province, says First Quantum Minerals (FQM) Country Manager, Kingsley Chinkuli.

General Chinkuli observed that there was need for a better understanding of investors and investment requirements to stimulate an influx of new investors in various sectors in North-Western Province.

He was speaking at this week’s Expo North West Zambia 2019.

“The province’s copper and gold resources have been unveiled by our company and others, creating a new and modern ‘Copperbelt’,” he said.

“To unveil that which is still hidden in the ground requires a positive policy on exploration. This province needs the next mine to come online in the near future, and it needs extension of the lives of existing mines,” General Chinkuli said.

And he said the province had empty game reserves which needed to be stocked with game to promote tourism development in the area.

FQM, he said, firmly believed that the solutions to promoting economic development in North-Western Province, lied in exploitation of the area’s other ‘hidden treasures.’

Gen. Chinkuli said FQM’s direct involvement in agriculture at community level, through its Trident Foundation, also kept growing every year and that it clearly demonstrated the region’s hidden treasure in its soils and weather.

“First Quantum believes that forestry is a great treasure worth protecting for an economic and orderly exploitation for the benefit of this land,” he said.

“The production coming off our community farms through conservation farming should To“unveil that which is still hidden in the ground requires a positive policy on exploration. This province needs the next mine to come online in the near future, and it needs extension of the lives of existing mines.”

encourage any investor to take up investment in this area,” Gen Chinkuli said.