Two Zambian mining agencies warn that Zambia will revert to long-term policy instability and mining investment stagnation if the country’s proposed Minerals Regulation Commission Bill is not amended.
The Association of Zambian Mineral Exploration Companies (AZMEC) and the Zambia Chamber of Mines (ZCM) in a joint statement on Wednesday said Zambia’s exploration and mining risks are set to increase.
“If the Minerals Regulation Commission Bill is passed into law in its current form, the signal to the mining investment community – local and global – will be clear: Zambia is neither policy stable nor is it done with expropriating mining investors assets,” the agencies said.
Zambia’s mines ministry has not commented on this development.
'Fatal blow'
Zambia’s government has proposed a new Minerals Regulation Commission Bill, which seeks to “regulate and monitor the development and management of mineral resources” in Africa’s second-biggest copper producer.
But AZMEC and ZCM insist the bill would “drive up the perception of investment risk in Zambia, and therefore the cost of capital for every business in the country,” adding it would “deliver a fatal blow to the government’s ambitious strategy of increasing copper production to 3 million tonnes.”
President Hakainde Hichilema’s government says it seeks to repair the country’s investment reputation and ramp up copper production.
Copper output dropped to 698,000 tonnes in 2023 from 763,000 tonnes the previous year, data from the Zambia Chamber of Mines showed.
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