CORRECT ZAMBIA’S COPPER STATS.
By Hon Miles B Sampa
So according to the latest FQM report on Zambia’s mining industry, one of the reasons Copper production has been on the Decline the last few years is due to Low grade in the Zambia Copper Ore.
By implication the Ore grade has now improved and that’s why they are ‘investing’ and ‘capitalizing’ huge.
LOL: Copper Grade improves over decades of years. It’s a known fact the Copper content in the Ore found in Zambia averages 2% .
This is so since ZCCM time to decades later when FQM was made into a company by the Pascal family that were advisers in the liquidation and unbundling of ZCCM.
This latest FQM report sounds like a Copy and Paste presented from one Country to another for tax avoidance and accounting trickery.
The USA has Copper Reserves of 40 million tons (mt), Russia 30mt, China 20mt, Zambia 20mt and Canada 10mt. Except Zambia, all other countries does and will next 10 years require more copper in their industries than they can produce.
It is estimated that the World currently has and will have next 10 years a shortfall of 4 million tons of Copper.
Zambia’s Copperbelt Ore has averages of 2% Copper content and significant Colbalt content.
Black Mountain Ore (residues since 1931) has 1% Copper content and 4% Cobalt.
North Western province has even higher Copper content close to 3% and some significant Gold content.
We have to tell our own story and not rely on foreign copy and paste reports.
Historians called It ‘Scramble for Africa’. We trust the current Government will represent us all Zambians fairly in the ‘Scramble for Zambian Copper’.
MBS13.05.2022
The problem with politicians is that they think they know everything. Look at Mwamba, he comments on everything. Miles has no idea of what he is talking about. Ore grades of any mineral has a cut off grade which is dependent on the price and technology used to extract the mineral. Now that copper is fetching a price of around 10000 USD, it means the cut off grade can be lowered to even 0.8 per cent. This will obviously increase the reserves available. Unfortunately Zambia cannot accurately estimate available resources/reserves due to insufficient geological exploration under taken. The few exploration done by foreign companies and their findings are held by those companies. Put more money into exploration to quantify what you have and draw projects from there. Do not politicise everything. They say it doesn’t matter what the colour of the cat is as long as it can catch a mouse.