Zambia progressing well in sustainable mining – report

NKOMBO KACHEMBA
Lusaka
AN ASSESSMENT by African Minerals Development Centre (AMDC) on Zambia’s adoption of the African Mining Vision (AMW), in its governance initiatives focused on sustainable management of the mineral sector, indicates the country is relatively progressing well.
The AMV was adopted in 2009 at the African Union (AU) summit to integrate mining in development policies at local, national and regional levels.
Its focus is to ensure the workers and communities see real benefits from largescale industrial mining while protecting the environment.
Zambia was assessed using the African Minerals Governance Framework (AMGF), which looked at six pillars – legal and institutional framework, geological and mineral information system, fiscal regime and revenue management leakages, investment and diversification, artisanal and small-scale mining and environmental and social issues.
The scoring criterion is from zero to 10, reflecting regression, neutral and progression.
Zambia achieved a median score of 4.51 percent, indicating the country is at the intermediate stage of implementing the AMV.
Its highest score was in geological and mineral information systems while the lowest was in artisanal and small-scale mining, where different parameters were analysed.
Recommendations have also been made on the need for the country to develop an effective implementation of existing mining laws and regulations, develop models and frameworks for partnerships between artisanal and smallscale mining and large-scale mining operations and amend the Mines and Minerals Act to include local management of small-scale mining.
Speaking during the dissemination of the report, AMDC interim director Marit Kitaw said so far five countries have been assessed to gauge the alignment of their initiatives in mining to the AMV.
Dr Kitaw said the AMV is a developmental mining approach that insists that the royal road to growth is through building economic and social linkages that benefit Africa itself.
“The AMDC was established as the coordinating arm for the African Union Commission to implement the AMV. It aims to ensure that minerals play a greater transformative role in the development of the continent. It is also the responsibility of the AMDC to ensure that Africa increases its role in the mineral supply chain in this new global context.
“With a development focus, the AMDC is expected to ensure that Africa fully benefits from exploration, extraction, processing, smelting, refining, alloying, as well as manufacturing of end products of Africa’s vast mineral resources in addition to controlling the marketing and the final sale of those mineral products,” she said.
On the assessments, Dr Kitaw said the tools gauged existing initiatives and approaches to governance in the mineral sectors to their alignment to the principles of the AMV.
She said, so far, Morocco, Ghana, Zambia, Gabon and the Democratic Republic of Congo have been assessed.
And European Union (EU) delegation to Zambia head of infrastructure Massimo Bonannini said the AU member states are required to fully adopt the AMV and align it to their national mining sector policies.
Mr Bonannini said it is important to discuss the results of the assessed countries and disseminate the findings in order to raise awareness about the AMV.
He said the EU delegation in Zambia was pleased to participate in the ‘Advocacy workshop: Promoting awareness of sustainable mineral resources management governance in Zambia and their alignment with the Africa Mining Vision’.
“This advocacy workshop follows an assessment that was done in Zambia in 2023 as part of the activities implemented by the project EU TAF to support the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and continental economic integration,” he said.