Sun, 19 Mar 2017 13:25:58 +0000
By ANNIE ZULU
THE European Union-funded Mineral Production Monitoring Support Project (MPMSP) Team Leader Ron Smit has clarified that there is an improvement in mineral production reporting by the mines in Zambia now compared to when the project started in 2015.
Mr Smit said this in response to reports suggesting that Government, through the Ministry of Mines and Minerals Development (MMMD), is not on top of mineral production monitoring and that there is poor or no correlation between mineral production and taxes and royalties paid by mining companies.
He told the Daily Nation in an interview that the project had contributed to improved reporting by major copper mines, as well as deeper investigation into the reports by Ministry of Mines and Minerals Development officers to clarify production figures reported by the mines.
“We are 100 percent more confident that the monthly reporting by the dozen or so large copper mines (who account for more than 90% of Zambia’s copper production) is accurate.
“This is due to the fact that we have designed and implemented the more detailed Form 34 for monthly reporting, which is the obligatory legal format since 1st January, 2016,” he said.
Mr Smit said the data required for Form 34 had been used as the basis for the design of the Mineral Output Statistical Evaluation System (MOSES) production reporting system implemented by another project operating under ZRA. “Form 34 requires reporting on all the intermediary products produced by the mining companies, and makes it possible to verify whether overall production reports are accurate and also whether mines have particular challenges to recover copper from certain types of ore,” Mr Smit said.
He further noted that the officers in the Ministry of Mines and Minerals Development now had an improved understanding of the reporting process and have been able to follow up with mining companies when reporting was seen to be inaccurate or incomplete.
Mr Smit disclosed that the MPMSP had also undertaken inspection visits to the mines to verify the qualities and quantities that they had reported in their monthly production reports.
He said the MPMSP was now shifting focus onto the reporting of other metals by the same mines, as well as designing a reporting format for gemstone production.
