By Agness Changala
Mine Workers Union of Zambia (MUZ) General Secretary George Mumba says there must be urgency attached to the mining agreements that are signed between the government and mining investors for them to be actualised.
And Mumba says it is critical that unions are availed of detailed agreements so that they understand what is contained in the documents once they are signed.
Last week, the government announced an investor for Mopani Copper Mines (MCM) in the name of International Holdings Resources (IHR) which is expected to pump in $1.1billion dollars in the mining operations.
The investment whose transaction was concluded last week on Friday will be split between equity and debt.
$400,000 million will be provided as a shareholder loan to MCM as part of the consideration to settle the original Glenore debt of $ 1.5 billion dollars.
Speaking to Daily Revelation on the above development, Mumba said it is good that the investor had come on board but quickly pointed out that processes take too long and this is having serious repercussions on the job security.
“For us what is paramount first is the job security which was at stake because people did not know what hit them next. Now that there is that life, I think what is very paramount to us is to understand what is contained in those agreements,” Mumba said.
He also said the union has not yet been availed a detailed agreement and it will only get comfortable once it sees and understands what is contained in it.
“Because we haven’t been provided with the details. For us to be comfortable, we need to have a detailed understanding of what is contained in the agreements,” he said.
Mumba said the union was however happy with the development saying there is great hope and especially that the interest of the current regime is that the country should hit three million tonnes of copper production.
“For us if this unlocking shows up even more at the close of the year, it gives us a good New Year present so that as we enter the New Year, at least there is that real hope in job security and beyond that revenue generation. That turns into revenue for the government coffers to do a lot of things,” he said.
On Konkola Copper Mines (KCM), Mumba said there is some background silence on the agreement signed between the mining company and Vedanta Resources.
In November this year, KCM and Vedanta sealed an agreement that restored the Indian company’s ownership of the mining company.
He made an appeal that agreements should be tied up so that operations can begin.
“Remember they are these agreements that they have to tie up to physically have a return and start operating. So I think for us our humble appeal would be that even with these agreements, there should be urgency attached to them, yes because over delaying makes people lose hope. When they pronounce, there should be seriousness for people who are entrusted to quickly tie up the agreement so that we see the turnaround of these operations, signing is one thing but what is critical for us is to see the actualization of agreements into operations of the mines,” said Mumba.
