Vancouver-based First Quantum Resources is teaming up with Zambia’s Mimosa Resources to develop the Fishtie deposit which has a preliminary resource of some 500,000 tonnes of copper.
“The Fishtie project is significant as it is the first and, until very recently, the only new copper discovery which has proceeded to a mining licence in Zambia,” a company representative told Reuters.
This is Africa spoke to First Quantum’s president Clive Newall who said Zambia’s mining policies are “somewhat volatile” and outlined ambitious expansion plans in the country over and above the Fishtie project:
“We are investing approximately $1.7bn in our new Trident project, which includes the Sentinel copper mine and the Enterprise Nickel mine, between now and the end of 2014,” he tells This is Africa. First Quantum acquired the Trident project, located in north western Zambia, in 2010.
“An additional $2bn will be put into the expansion of the group’s existing Kansanshi mine, increasing its copper output from 240,000 tonnes per year to 400,000 tonnes per year by 2014. The expansion will include developing of one of the world’s biggest copper smelters, designed to treat 1.2m tonnes of concentrate a year.”
The Lusaka Times quotes Adam Little, who heads up the firm’s tax department, as saying that the company has paid over $2 billion in taxes since 2005 and that given that the country has some of the highest mining tax and royalty structures in the world, many would “think twice” before investing:
“Government should encourage future development, I don’t think that means offering individual incentives to the mines “No sweetheart deals” but coming up with consistent and fair tax environment,” he said.
At the start of the year First Quantum was able to extract itself from the Democratic Republic of the Congo with a $1.25 billion payment after a long legal battle.
Two years earlier the DRC government nationalized its then flagship Frontier mine but First Quantum managed to sell the asset to a Kazakhstan’s ENRC.
3 Comments
Ronmalama
First Quantum is not sharing the riches with local institutions- no local bank account, no local suppliers and no local insurances. Everything is decided in Australia and imposed on local institutions from banks to insurance companies. Heavy premiums paid and the mediums are international brokers and insurance companies that are easy prey.
ObiWanWotan
Did you just figure that out? What happens when all of ‘you’ figure that out? Revolution? Would you like some help from your African-American cousins? Will you be casting all of your Other-Than-African masters out of Africa? Of course, you can pray that the Other-Than-Africans simply change and treat you better than they have been.
Jaco
Ronmalama – take it all away and what are you left with? I’ll tell you nothing. The Zambian government or the people without the Musungo wouldnt maintain it longer than 12 months. You’d end up with a worse situation – make hay while the sun shines and dont moan about small descrepencies