Chambishi Metals in limbo

GOVERNMENT will revoke the mining licence of Chambishi Metals if the management fails to resolve operational challenges at the mine in three months, Minister of Mines and Mineral Development Richard Musukwa said.

He said the challenges which the mine was facing had nothing to do with the 5 percent tax imposed on copper concentrates.

Mr Musukwa said the mine was facing operational challenges as it did not have resources to run the mine.

He said in an interview yesterday that the management had since been given three months ultimatum to resolve the challenges and if nothing was done, the licence would be revoked.

“I held a meeting with Chambishi Metals team last week on Friday in my office with the Member of Parliament for Kalulushi, Honourable Mulenga Kapamba and Mine Unions and it was very clear from the discussions that the challenges the mine was facing had nothing to do with the 5 percent tax.

“I actually challenged that if I ask the Minister of Finance to remove the 5 percent can you open the mine, they came out in the open that they have operational challenges as a company. And among the issues they were talking about were that the smelter facilities were not able to process the concentrates.

“This is kind of information they were supposed to tell the nation instead of hiding under the cover of Government. So what we have told them as Government is that they should resolve their operational management issues, failure to do that we will revoke the licence,” Mr Musukwa said.

He said it was evident that the company had no capacity to procure new equipment to resume operations, therefore, it was prudent that a new investor was engaged to run the operations.

Mr Musukwa said if the management had no plan to run the operations efficiently then Government had powers to take necessary action.

“As Government we cannot allow the mine to continue to be on and off, this is impacting negatively on the employees as well as the economy,” he said.

Mr Musukwa said there was already a mining company from Switzerland which had shown interest to take over the operations.

“In fact if they fail to produce like the way they have failed, they have abrogated the Mines and Mineral Act, they have already broken the law. So as government we have powers to take action because they have abrogated the law,” he said.