DON’T SELL MINES- KAVINDELE

By KETRA KALUNGA and ADRIAN MWANZA

INSTEAD of privatising the mines, Government should look for a credible partner with a robust balance sheet to run Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) and Mopani mines to provide requisite investment capital which they could not muster on their own, former Vice President, Enock Kavindele has advised.

The premium price that copper was fetching, he said, was a sufficient incentive to attract an investor that would work with the government in running the mines.

And Zambia Chamber of Commerce Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Sokwani Chilembo has echoed Mr Kavindele’s sentiments and said there was need for foreign investment capital to be pumped into Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) and Mopani Copper Mines (MCM) for them to become viable.

Mr Chilembo said the two mines needed foreign capital to be injected in them so that they could remain afloat

And Mr Kavindele was sure that a credible partner with a strong balance sheet could be the answer to the $2 billion required to develop Konkola Deep, the future of KCM.

“So my views will be that Government should partner with someone who has resources because on their own, the mines may not be able to mobilise the resources. 

“Zambia has competent people who can run the mines but competence is not the issue, the issue is money to fund the mines,” he said.

Mr. Kavindele explained that when Government took over the running of KCM before selling it to Anglo American it was very expensive to run the mine because it was costing almost US$1million a day, hence the rushed sell.

“It was very expensive for Government to run KCM, it was costing $1 million a day hence the decision to sell it,” Mr Kavindele said.

Meanwhile Mr Chilembo said that the operational costs were very high and that government alone could not manage to run the two mines on their own.

“What is needed is foreign capital and  how it comes is up to government to decide and will do what is optimal in each individual situation,” he said.

Mr Chilembo said the operational costs were very high and running in millions of dollars, making it   difficult for government to run and maintain them.

He said there was need to be pragmatic because if the capital was not pumped in, production would dip which would have negative implications on the economy.