BME has been building its business in Zambia since 1999, and the results are now showing clearly: the country has become the company’s second-most important market behind its home-turf in South Africa, where it is a major player in the opencast segment. “Our starting point in Zambia was a contract …

Emerald miner Gemfields Plc said it sold a little over half a million carats of rough stones at its first high-quality emerald auction in Lusaka, Zambia, raking in $31.5 million. Gemfields, owner of the Fabergé luxury jewellery brand, said it realised an average price of $54 per carat, its highest …

Democratic Republic of Congo has delayed until year-end a ban on exports of copper and cobalt concentrates designed to encourage miners to refine the red metal within its borders, a senior Mining Ministry official said last week. Several emerging resource-rich nations have sought to discourage export of concentrates – the …

KONKOLA Copper Mines says the country needs to start preparing for the reality that current continued fall in international copper price will negatively affect Zambia including reduced revenues for the Treasury. Director for strategy and business development Brad Gnanasivan, however, said the local mining sector is currently in a better …

Tiger Resources Ltd said it produced a record 4,422t of copper concentrate in June from its Kipoi copper mine in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The output is 47% above the plant’s nameplate capacity and 10% higher than the previous monthly record of 4,007t achieved in March, Tiger said. …

In the wake of a successful decline sinking project completed last year at Lubambe copper mine in Zambia, Murray & Roberts Cementation has been awarded a new contract for trackless high speed development. The project is scheduled to extend to January 2014. The mine is a joint venture between African …

KALAHARI Geo Energy Limited plans to commence preliminary shallow drilling for geothermal energy development at its identified sites in the Kafue basin. The company signed a memorandum of understanding with the Zambian government in 2011 for geothermal energy exploration rights to “certain identified targets among them in Kafue basin” but …

SOUTHERN Africa Resource Watch (SARW) Zambia coordinator Edward Lange has appealed to the government not to abandon the corrective process simply to satisfy the interest of First Quantum Minerals, which has threatened to lay off 500 workers at its Kalumbila mine in Solwezi. And Zambia Congress of Trade Unions secretary …

MINES deputy minister Richard Musukwa says “there is no ban” on auctioning of Zambia’s emeralds abroad. However, in April, then mines minister, Yamfwa Mukanga, directed that all Zambian emeralds be auctioned in the country, contending that “Zambian gemstones have for a long time been sold on foreign markets and the …

FIRST Quantum Minerals Limited is expected to ramp up its copper production to 700,000 metric tonnes per annum by 2015 with the completion of Sentinel Mine and increase output arising from the expansions at Kansanshi mine. And First Quantum Mineral head of public relations Godfrey Msiska said once Kalumbila Mine …