By Chinoyi Chipulu
Emeralds and Semi-Precious Stones Mining Association of Zambia (ESMAZ) President Victor Kalesha has urged the government to put measures that will increase gemstone production in the country.
Speaking in an interview with Daily Revelation over the weekend, Kalesha said increasing production levels to about 40 percent would result in increased taxes going into the government coffers.
He said only two mining firms are currently producing emeralds and semi-precious stones for export to the international market out of the many emerald mining firms in the country.
“There are two mines only producing and that is Kagem Mining and Grizzly Mining so our appeal has been that our small scale miners should also join the band and probably become productive,” he said.
Kalesha said the sector currently sought fresh investments in the emerald mining industry to revamp dormant mines and resume operations aimed at meeting the set target of increasing production.
“We are hoping that maybe this year things will change, that we may probably be able to have a few mines attracting investors because we will have a mining insaka coming up this year, where government is inviting investors from all corners of the world so that they can have an engagement with small scale miners,” he said.
Kalesha said the artisanal and small-scale mining sector in Zambia had not gone past its challenges of equipment, access to finance and geological information.
“We probably are on the right trajectory, hoping that we will have a few investors coming in and I think government has come up with a few mechanisms of what they are telling us. They are trying to do the mapping which means they are trying to do exploration which is geological investigation,” said Kalesha. “This is a plus to us, that is why we are hoping that with the mapping of the mineral resource or defining the mineral resource, it will be easy for us to get into production.”
