Zambian president to protect mine jobs

ZAMBIAN President Edgar Lungu would not allow Glencore’s local unit to cut about 4 000 jobs and that the nation, which is Africa’s second-biggest copper producer, would find other investors to take over mining operations if the current owners had failed, he said.

The company intends to suspend production at its Mopani Copper Mines unit for 18 months, while it invests $950 million (R13 billion) in building new shafts and upgrading plants amid copper prices near six-year lows. The plan includes firing more than 4 000 employees, and a bigger number of contract workers.

Mopani should use the profits it made during times of high copper prices to sustain its workforce now, Lungu said in comments broadcast on Tuesday on state-owned ZNBC TV. If mining companies had failed to run their operations, the government would find other investors to take over, he said.

A spokesman for Baar, Switzerland-based Glencore declined to comment.

Lungu made his remarks during a five-day tour of the Copperbelt province, much of which he has spent talking to mining investors and worker unions as the industry faces its biggest crisis since 2009. Falling metal prices and a power shortage have contributed to a 49 percent decline in Zambia’s kwacha against the dollar this year, the biggest drop out of a 155 currencies tracked globally.

Mopani should use the profits it made during times of high copper prices to sustain its workforce.

Glencore said in a corporate update and third-quarter production report yesterday that the shutdown and restart plan at Mopani had been completed. It also increased its total estimate for copper production cuts at Mopani and mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo to 455 000 tons from 400 000 tons.

An optimisation study at Mopani had started and the smelter would continue to operate at a reduced level or in short bursts to service contracts it had with other suppliers to process their material, Glencore said. In order to do this, the company may need to source some concentrates from the mine.

Glencore said it had deferred investment in a new concentrator to 2017 and that full production would not resume until 2018. – Bloomberg