Zambia resumes mineral exports

Zambia’s new government has been quick to meet its election promises of clamping down on corruption. Exports of copper and other minerals, including cobalt, gold and nickel were suspended on October 4 pending the implementation of new measures aimed at improving revenue collection and transparency in the mining sector. “All current permits issued by my ministry are immediately suspended pending issuance of new guidelines by the government,” permanent secretary Godwin Beene told miners last week. He told the Post newspaper “this is just a (temporary) ban which will be lifted next week. So there is no need to panic.” On Friday, October 7, cabinet minister Miles Sampa announced that a metal export verification desk had been established at the central bank, and that the temporary ban had been lifted. Copper accounts for three quarters of Zambia’s export earnings, but the mining industry contributes only about 10% of its tax revenue, according to official statistics. There is also a discrepancy in the destination of the exports. Official manifests show that many of the copper exports are destined for Switzerland, but this is not reflected in Swiss customs data, according to reports. FTW’s information from visiting the freight forwarding industry in Zambia recently is that the majority of the cargo is bound for the East. Any long-term disruption to the export of copper would have affected all levels of the logistics industry in Zambia, as well as the ports of Durban, Maputo, Walvis Bay and Beira – which has just come back on stream. Around two thousand tons of copper a day is exported from Zambia.