President Hakainde Hichilema has served blunt notice on mining licence holders sitting idle on Zambia’s mineral wealth, warning that the era of speculative tenement hoarding is over. Officially opening the third Zambia Mining and Investment Insaka in Lusaka today, the President revealed that one investor in the room had held a licence for more than 25 years without developing it. He said the government is now pursuing a “use it or lose it” approach to mining tenements. Flanked by ministers from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Botswana, the President also declared that Zambia’s mines belong in boardrooms, not courtrooms.
“How can you sit on a licence for 25, 26 years? Who has 26 years to send the kids to school like us, free education up to Grade 12? We need a resource from there.”
The President said the unnamed licence holder had seen the licence revoked by every previous government, only to negotiate and litigate it back each time. He told the gathering he had personally warned the holder that this was the last chance under a government with a different attitude towards licences. He questioned why exploration spending in Zambia remains lower than in other mining regions of the world, asking whether the cause was a mentality of opportunism. The warning comes as the government nears completion of a landmark national survey that will remove one of the oldest excuses for idle tenements. Investors, he said, now have no reason to delay.
That survey is the high-resolution geophysical mapping of the entire country, covering all 752,000 square kilometres, at a cost to government of almost $100 million. President Hichilema said the exercise would conclude within a month and represents work that has not been done properly in 62 years. He said he already knows, in general terms, what minerals lie where across the country. The data, he argued, will allow investors to carry out precision exploration at far lower cost, on the back of money they did not contribute. He listed copper, cobalt, nickel, manganese, uranium, lithium and rare earths among the minerals Zambia now knows it holds.
“We want to do with our copper and cobalt and nickel and manganese and uranium and lithium and other rare earths what the UAE has done with its oil and gas for its people and their economies. That’s our ambition.”
The President then turned his fire on litigation, which he described as the disease that nearly killed Zambia’s mining sector. He recalled that when his government took office, almost every critical mine in the country was tied up in court, with many cases heard in London rather than at home. In one case, a mine and its energy supplier had been in court for four to five years until he brought both parties into the same room and resolved the dispute. He extended the same instruction to regulators, telling them to call mines to the table rather than sue them. He said he spoke on the matter for President Félix Tshisekedi of the DRC and President Duma Boko of Botswana as well.
“We don’t encourage mining in court here. We want investments in the mining areas and in the boardrooms, not in courtrooms.”
The President rolled out a list of revived assets as proof that the approach is working. He said Luanshya’s 28 Shaft, out of commission for 23 years, had nearly killed the town, which now calls itself “the new Luanshya” after the mine returned to production. Kalengwa mine, idle for 47 years, is producing again. Konkola Copper Mines, once in a messy liquidation, now has shareholders agreed that it should contribute 300,000 tonnes towards the national target. He also cited the greenfield Kitumba mine in Mumbwa, once riddled with litigation between private parties who were summoned to State House, which is entering production within four years with a new town growing around it.
On local content, the President delivered one of the biggest numbers of the day. He said local content commitments, starting at 20 per cent and rising to 40 per cent, had already generated close to $1 billion for local suppliers in roughly a year. He revealed that he had refused to sign the local content agreement when the Chamber of Mines called him late at night to say its members had not yet agreed, sending it back for three more months of talks. At the $1.3 billion Kansanshi S3 expansion in Solwezi, the cabling, electricals and ball mills came from local suppliers, with grinding balls now produced in Kalumbila instead of being shipped from Australia. He also dismissed traditional corporate social responsibility, saying jobs and supply contracts matter more than a clinic or a school built by a mine.
“Creating more jobs and more business opportunities for supply of goods and services is stronger than building one clinic or two clinics and a school there.”
The President made regional value chains the centrepiece of his vision, proposing a bold joint venture model for electric vehicles. He described a Toyota Hilux produced in South Africa carrying an EV battery made from Congolese and Zambian materials and a wiring harness from Botswana. Such a vehicle, he said, would be South African only on the surface, and the partner countries would commit to buying it with their combined purchasing power. He confirmed that government vehicle purchases will now be electric vehicles, except where they cannot serve the required purpose. He urged Zambia and the DRC to pool their copper for stronger bargaining power, calling on the region to work as a “pack of positive wolves”.
In the most stirring passage of the speech, the President invoked the colonial history that split the region’s mineral endowments. He said the Copperbelt and Katanga, North-Western Province and Lualaba, and Luapula and Tanganyika were one geological inheritance divided by European powers. He recalled how the Germans pushed the Caprivi Strip to separate Botswana from Zambia in pursuit of Zambezi water. He told delegates that the countries are one family and warned that, without care, they would end up fighting over borders drawn by others. He also noted that Zambia sits between its two guests, so the DRC and Botswana cannot deal with each other without passing through Zambia.
On energy, the President said Zambia is failing to communicate its own reforms. He had heard a South African broadcast that morning claiming only three or four African countries had reformed their power sectors, and resolved on the spot to raise it at the Insaka. Zambia, he said, has ended the electricity monopoly and introduced open access, independent power producers and independent power traders, businesses that did not exist three or four years ago. He told the energy and mines ministries to get their act together on communication, warning that the region will not invest if it does not know what Zambia has done. He also announced that the next budget provides for a skills training centre in every one of the country’s 116 districts, with mines expected to shape the curricula.
Opening the event, the Acting Minister of Mines and Minerals Development, who also holds responsibility for the green economy and environment, issued a stern warning of his own. He told mining giants that some firms in the room had near-perfect pollution records, but others continued to record pollution incidents frequently, and that government had tightened its grip. He said there would be no compromise on pollution, while pledging that approvals would be granted promptly within the law. He committed the ministry to delivering the target of three million tonnes of copper annually within the next five years, and described the presence of the DRC and Botswana as proof that this year’s Insaka goes beyond Zambia. The President backed the warning, insisting that the Kafue River must stay clean because Lusaka depends on it for drinking water, irrigation and power generation.
“If you are polluting, please stop it. But mine as much. It is your responsibility to find the balance, and we will support you.”
The President closed with a direct challenge to the deal rooms operating on the sidelines of the Insaka. He said the gathering was “not a holiday” but business, and condemned deal makers who talk endlessly and part only by agreeing when to meet next. He recalled critics who called the government “mad” for setting the three million tonne target when the mines were on their knees, and dismissed advice to lower his targets so he could boast of over-delivering. He warned that Africa’s young population is impatient and restless, and that leaders can only justify their stay in office through results. He urged delegates to close transactions and then consummate them.
“Close transactions. Then consummate them. There is a habit by certain deal makers never to close a transaction.”
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