PRESIDENT Hakainde Hichilema yesterday awakened Zambia’s largest gold mine, Kasenseli in Chibwika chiefdom of Mwinilunga district, after three years of being dormant.
The UPND government suspended operations at the gold mine in 2021, a year after it was opened by Zambia Gold company, a subsidiary of ZCCM-IH, due to increased accidents, as a result of illegal and unsafe mining.
Government had directed that the mine would be re-opened once safety standards were met.
Gracing the opening of the mine in Mwinilunga, the Head of State said the mine will be run by Zambia Gold company and the Chibwika Chiefdom Development Trust.
“Kasenseli Gold Mine is a partnership of ZCCM-IH through Zambia Gold and indeed the local community here , the Chibwika Chiefdom Development Trust. Other mines must emulate this partnership,” he said.
President Hichilema cited illegal mining, a hazardous environment and unaccountability as the reasons the mine was shut down, so that policies could be put in place before it was fully operational.
“We don’t want illegal mines. On this mine we lost people, we lost our beloved people who were obviously mining in some cases illegally, some cases legal but we lost our own children here. This government will not watch, sit down to allow our people to die in the mine pits,” he said.
“We want the gold, we want the copper, we want all the minerals with our people being alive.
Another major reason the mine was closed down is unsafe mining. We want to avoid mining in unsafe ways.”
President Hichilema said the mineral should be taken account of so that it can benefit the masses through the treasury.
“Amongst other reasons the mine was shut there was no accountability here. The people of Chibwika, Mwinilunga, North-Western, the people of Zambia, were not sure of how much gold was being mined here. How much was being sold, at what price and who was benefiting,” he said.
“All of that will change, going forward there will be accountability here. And we must put technology here to make sure that every ounce of gold is accounted for, and it benefits the people who are intended to benefit those are the people of Chibwika, North-Western, the people of Zambia through the treasury in many cases.”
President Hichilema said the gold should be valued correctly.
“We want to make sure that the gold is sold at the right price, at the best price, Zambia Gold Company, Mushinshi mining project all our gold must be sold at the best price, not overpricing or underpricing because that’s value for the people of Zambia. All of them want to see proper value attributed from the sales from here,”he said.
President Hichilema guided that the work force at Kasenseli mine should be sourced locally.
“This mine like Kansanshi, Lumwana, Kalumbila, must employ the local people. The local people must be given an opportunity to be employed. No one must say the people of Chibwika, Mwinilunga are not educated; If they don’t have the skills required to mine here, Kasenseli must give them training, they must be trained to work in this mine,” he said.
“This is why the people of Mwinilunga were voting for UPND for 23 years, this is the reason.
This is now the time to reward the people of Mwinilunga, the people of this province, the people of Zambia for giving us the confidence to run this country. These are the policies we are bringing in place that is why we had closed Kasenseli and that is the reason we are re-opening Kasenseli today.”
The re-opening of the mine was also a life-changing opportunity for the 14 unskilled geologist youth, who discovered the mineral, as President Hichilema delivered exciting news that they be awarded for discovering the gold.
“Those 14 or so youth who discovered this gold I understand they’ve not been fully compensated, I have issued instructions that from today going forward they must be fully compensated for their discovery going forward no arguments,”the President directed.
“I have also instructed the minister of mines that those youths must be given a new license so that they can be assisted to mine and sell the material to Kasenseli Gold mine here.”
President Hichilema also emphasized on value addition by ensuring that the gold is processed to a final product.
“Kasenseli must invest in proper technology there to process the gold, to extract as much gold using proper processes proper technology so that we can increase the value and deliver that value to the intended beneficiaries,” he said.
“This processing plant must be able to take in material from small mines around here. Let’s allow small mines owned by our own people, whoever to process material here to 90% but we want to refine our gold upto 99.9% and then we can get more value.”
President Hichilema indicated that the IPND was working on the road infrastructure in province among them the Lumwana -Kabimba road that goes to Kolwezi in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo, Mutanda- Kasempa- Kaoma road among others.
“I will be in Angola in a few days with the President of Angola and Congo DR and we will be consolidating and finalizing the Lobito corridor with our railway line from … Kanongesha into Mwinilunga into Kalumbila Lumwana, Manyama into Chingola and Solwezi,” he disclosed.
The Head of State wondered why his predecessors did not consider such kind of development.
“Your government (UPND) is working and this has been done in three years of assuming office what were the other governments doing for so many years? Look at what we are able to do in three years, we are working. Everything we promise we deliver. Walk with us, Kasenseli is officially opened today. May God help us,” said President Hichilema.
Minister of mines and mineral development Paul Kabuswe says the mines on the Copperbelt and Northwestern province, will so far contribute 810, 000 metric tons in copper production towards government’s target of 3,000,000 metric tons per year in copper production.
He said naysayers are trying to twist the facts in regard to Mopani Copper Mines.
Earlier the President also commissioned the 0.64 megawatts Kasanjiku mini-hydro power station in Mwinilunga, which is among the 12 off-grid solar power plants installed by the Rural Electrification Authority (REA) to supply power to over 20, 000 people.
The Head of State will today open Kalengwa mine which has been shut down for long time, as its ownership had been highly clamored for in the Courts.
By Mwaka Ndawa
Kalemba November 18, 2024.
