FED-UP CHIEF CLOSES MINES

By GRACE CHAILE LESOETSA

SENIOR Chief Sailunga Ikundu of the Lunda people has revoked mining consents granted to Zamsort Limited and ZACO Investments Limited following the delay to open Mwinilunga’s Kalaba mine.

The traditional leader in a letter addressed to Zamsort and ZACO dated April 22, 2021 and copied to the Mines and Minerals Development minister Richard Musukwa, said that the two companies had clearly abrogated the terms and conditions of the grant of consent given to them.

“My decision to revoke the consent is due to the fact that, from the time I granted Zamsort  Kalaba  mining consent to undertake exploration  and mining activities in my chiefdom, there has been no development and as such the people in my chiefdom have not benefitted in any way,” Senior Chief Sailunga Ikundu said.

Zamsort is a private Zambian registered company that is the 100 percent owner of the Kalaba Cu-Co Project located approximately 1, 000 km from Lusaka, in Mwinilunga.

Last month, Senior Chief Sailunga Ikundu advised the government to immediately find another investor to run Kalaba Mine which Zamsort, majority owned by Arc Minerals Limited which holds a 66 percent stake, has failed to open as its continued delay was affecting the government’s development agenda.

Arc Minerals also holds majority shareholding (at 72.5 percent) of Zaco, another project for which a licence has been obtained but with the majority shareholders’ dealings at Kalaba mine.

Senior Chief Sailunga Ikundu said there was no tangible progress despite the mine being in existence since 2002 but had instead employed caretakers to safeguard the land and a few machinery brought in instead of going into full production.