ZAMBIA’S mining giant plans to invest into the small-scale gold mining sector by formalising trade for the miners and have already begun purchases.
Earlier this week, Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines Investments Holdings (ZCCM-IH) announced that its subsidiary, the Consolidated Gold Company of Zambia had opened a gold testing and processing laboratory that would facilitate the assessment of locally mined gold.
“ZCCM-IH has embarked on an ambitious investment programme to harness the gold potential in the country as mandated by Government, and that so far the company has started buying gold from artisanal and small-scale gold miners as one of the steps towards the formalisation of gold mining and trading activities,” ZCCM-IH Chief Executive Officer Mabvuto Chipata told media.
“We are offering a competitive price, starting from K550 per gramme, and depending on the purity, using thorough technical assaying methods, the price may be higher as compared to prices found on the ground.”
Mr. Chipata further encouraged anyone with gold to come forward and sell to ZCCM-IH as the company will guide such individuals on how they can regularise their activities so that they are compliant with the relevant regulations.
And Karma Mining Services and Rural Development Chief Executive Officer Faisal Keer said the gold lab was critical in the gold trade process to determine the gold content accurately in the ore that will be received from the various miners.
Speaking at a media press briefing, the Consolidated Gold Company Chief Executive Officer said the company has invested US$3.5 million in setting up a laboratory, procurement of gold milling plants and earth moving equipment.
“The lab is critical in the process as it is meant to determine the gold content accurately in the ore that will be received from various miners, for them to get a fair share and value for their material. It will be able to process about 30 samples per day,” he said.
“The gold milling plants have a capacity of processing 30 tonnes per day, and will be operational by the first week of April 2020. Our target from the gold milling plants is to produce 300 grams of gold per day, which translates into approximately 7.5 kgs per month,” he said.
Mr Keer said the company is helping small scale miners including those dealing in lode gold or quartz gold to develop their mines and increase the mineral ore production by providing mining technical expertise and access to earth moving machinery
He called upon members of the public to utilise the facility and take their samples for testing for them to get a fair share and value for their gold.
Consolidated Gold Company of Zambia Limited is a Joint Venture partnership between ZCCM-IH (45%) and Karma Mining Services and Rural Development (55%) with a purpose of developing a gold processing and trading operation in Zambia.

Source: The Sun

ZCCM-IH chief executive officer Mabvuto Chipata says talks with various companies outside Zambia are at an advanced stage to secure a viable market for the off-take of gold that will be due to be sold.

And Chipata has announced that ZCCM-IH will be offering a competitive price for gold from the local market, pegged at a starting price of K550 per gramme.

Meanwhile, Consolidated Gold Company Limited have invited all interested stakeholders to utilize a new, state-of-the art gold testing laboratory to ascertain the quantity and quality of gold mineral they may have as personal holdings to secure a market and the best possible sale price.

Addressing journalists following a media tour at the Consolidated Gold Company laboratory in Lusaka, Wednesday, Chipata said talks with various companies outside Zambia were at an advanced stage.

He was responding to a question on what progress ZCCM-IH had made in securing a viable market for the off-take of Zambian gold once the company was ready and in a position to commence sales.

He was responding to a question on what progress ZCCM-IH had made in securing a viable market for the off-take of Zambian gold once the company was ready and in a position to commence sales.

“We are also working with banks in this (gold) project. The whole value chain requires that you start from where you are buying; you need to look at the logistics; you need to look at the security; you need to look at the storage of the gold; the buyer and financing structure…so, this is a big project that we think that all the stakeholders, really, have got a part to play in this process.”

Asked how confident ZCCM-IH was at achieving their projected target of securing 40,000Kgs of gold, or 40 tonnes, in view of the security threats that halted the scoping exercise, Chipata expressed optimism given the progress made so far.

Teams comprising of ZCCM-IH, Ministry of Mines and Minerals Development and the Ministry of Home Affairs personnel were deployed to eight gold mining and panning sites across the country to undertake a scoping exercise, according to Chipata.

The exercise was, however, temporarily halted due to the fragile security situation over the last few weeks following the recent spate of gassing attacks in various areas of the country.

“How confident are we at achieving the target? You will appreciate that this is a project that we are doing for the first time. We know that Kansanshi Mine produces about 4,000-5,000Kgs of gold as we stand. The work we are doing now in terms of exploration will help us ascertain the quantities of gold that are on the ground, particularly, in Mwinilunga area (North-Western Province). In Rufunsa (District) as well, once we start exploration work, we will be able to ascertain the quantities that are there,” he replied.

“The information we have now is based on the information we have informally. So, we think that once we have done exploration work, we will be able to announce how much quantities we will discover in each of the areas as we go on during the year.”

And he announced that ZCCM-IH would be offering a competitive price for gold from the local market, pegged at a starting price of K550 per gramme.

“I must say that so far, our moving into the market to buy the gold, has been received favourably by the artisanal miners. We are offering a competitive price, starting from K550 per gramme, and depending on the purity using thorough technical assaying methods, the price may be higher. Compared to prices found on the ground ranging from K350 to K500, the price range we are offering compares favourably to this, but also to market prices as well, once the purity or gold content is determined,” Chipata announced.

Meanwhile, speaking earlier, Consolidated Gold Company Limited chief executive officer Faisal Keer invited all interested parties to utilize the new, state-of-the-art gold testing laboratory to ascertain the quantity and quality of gold mineral they may have as personal holdings to secure a market and best possible sale price.

“This laboratory is targeted at the operations we are setting up starting with Rufunsa where we are working with small-scale and artisanal miners there from the surrounding area. We have so far invested about US $250,000 in setting up this lab that will be able to process about 30 samples per day. The lab will also be open to the general public for them to come and have their samples tested from here,” said Keer.

“The next step in the project, as you saw, we have procured 10 milling plants to be set-up on the Rufunsa site and also some earth-moving machinery. The gold milling plants have a capacity of processing 30 tonnes per day and will be operational by the first week of April, 2020.”

The media tour was organized as part of efforts to sensitize all stakeholders of progress ZCCM-IH had made in the ongoing gold value chain project.

The company has started buying gold from artisanal and small-scale gold miners as one of the steps towards the formalization of gold mining and trading activities.

ZCCM-IH’s national target for gold from both primary and secondary sources is 40 tonnes or 40,000Kgs.

Source: News Diggers

ZAMBIA’S formalisation of the gold industry is gaining momentum with ZCCM-Investment Holdings (IH) starting buying gold from artisanal miners.
Last week, the holding company started buying gold from miners although the volumes bought so far are yet to be quantified.https://epaper.daily-mail.co.zm/

Source: Zambia Daily Mail

ZCCM-IH recently held a press briefing and media tour of the gold testing and processing laboratory.

The briefing was addressed by ZCCM-IH Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Mabvuto Chipata and Karma Mining Services and Rural Development/Consolidated Gold Company Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Faisal Keer.

Speaking at the event, Mr. Chipata informed the media that ZCCM-IH has embarked on an ambitious investment programme to harness the gold potential in the country as mandated by Government, and that so far the company has started buying gold from artisanal and small-scale gold miners as one of the steps towards the formalisation of gold mining and trading activities.

He announced that ZCCM-IH is offering a competitive price, starting from K550 per gram, and depending on the purity using thorough technical assaying methods, the price may be higher as compared to prices found on the ground.

Mr. Chipata further encouraged anyone with gold to come forward and sell to ZCCM-IH as the company will guide such individuals on how they can regularise their activities so that they are compliant with the relevant regulations.

And speaking earlier Mr. Faisal Keer noted that the lab was critical in the process as it is meant to determine the gold content accurately in the ore that will be received from the various miners, for them to get a fair share and value for their material.

He called upon members of the public to utilise the facility and take their samples for testing.

Consolidated Gold Company of Zambia Limited is a Joint Venture partnership between ZCCM-IH (45%) and Karma Mining Services and Rural Development (55%) with a purpose of developing a gold processing and trading operation in Zambia.

ZCCM IH in collaboration with Karma Mining Services and Rural Development Limited in Consolidated Gold Company Limited has established a gold testing laboratory following the group’s announcements that it intended to diversify into other commodities through strategic partnerships.

Earlier in the year, in the week that saw ZCCM IH Group CEO Mabvuto Chipata declare a profit for the year of K448 million and a K53 million dividend for the financial year ending March 2019 at their Annual General Meeting, the CEO announced the Group’s gold intentions.

“ZCCM-IH has started buying gold from artisanal and small scale gold miners from various places. This is part of the steps towards the formalisation of the artisanal gold miners”, according to a press invitation issued by Loisa M Kakoma, ZCCM IH Head of Public Relations on 10 March 2020.

The opening of the lab is only the beginning of what Financial Insight believes is ZCCM IH’s carefully crafted roadmap of becoming a forceful gold player in the value chain. A value chain links the steps a product takes from the primary producer to the consumer. It includes research and development, input suppliers and finance. For example, the gold value chain spans the production steps from the ore in the ground to the retailing of the fine gold jewelry. This is the reason why opening up a gold laboratory is so important to ZCCM IH’s ambitions.

By starting with small scale miners, the Group is essentially re-writing the way mining ought to be conducted in Zambia by putting in place structures and captures of the essence of value creation at each stage in a formalized manner. This is the sensitivity of traceability that is demanded by the industry as it was elaborately echoed at the February 2020 mining indaba by Mark Bristow, President of Barrick Mining. Traceability, which is a facet of supply chain management, is one type of Cost of Chain model whereby the material in the chain can be traced back to its actual sources. Depending on the solution deployed, it enables mining organizations to make informed, actionable decisions, better engage with their employees and communities and more efficiently manage resources.

With the opening up of the lab and the signing of strategic joint ventures, the Group will also be embarking on “other efforts include providing technical expertise, access to earthmoving machinery and production equipment to small scale gold miners”.

In achieving the latter, ZCCM-IH with its partner Karma Mining Services and Rural Development Limited in Consolidated Gold Company Limited have set-up a laboratory aimed at establishing gold content in ore to be purchased from artisanal and small-scale gold miners.

During the laboratory media tour and press briefing on the gold project in Rufunsa, Mr Faisal Keer, CEO of Consolidated Gold Company Limited said that the laboratory is critical as it is meant to determine gold content accurately in the ore that will be received from various miners, for them to get a fair share and value for their material. The main objective of this is to curb the smuggling of gold out of the country, provide an open market and competitive prices for the artisanal and small-scale gold miners and ultimately take stock of the gold output from artisanal and small-scale miners.

ZCCM-IH and Karma Mining Services and Rural Development have entered a joint venture partnership through the incorporation of consolidated gold company of Zambia Limited, which both have a shareholding of 45% and 55% respectively. The purpose of this joint venture is to develop a gold processing and trading operation in Zambia and they are working closely with the Ministry of mines to make this a success.

Embarking on an ambitious investment program to harness the gold potential in the country as mandated by the government, the following has been done. Firstly, they have started preliminary activities in the Kasenseli area in Mwinilunga and from the samples that have been collected so far, the results have been positive. To add on, the collabo has started buying gold from artisanal and small-scale gold miners as one of the steps towards the formalization of gold mining and trading activities.

During his speech, Mabvuto Chipata, ZCCM-IH CEO, mentions that so far, moving into the market to buy gold has been received favorably by the artisanal miners and encouraged anyone with gold to come forward and sell to them. This also includes household miners, as this will help and guide such individuals on how they can properly extract gold from their various items in a safe and profitable manner as well as regularize their activities so that they are compliant with the relevant regulations.

Source: Financial Insight Zambia

The Karma Mining Services and Rural Development – KMSRD joint venture – JV with ZCCM Investment Holdings to form a gold company “Consolidated Gold Company of Zambia – CGCZ Ltd” for the purpose of developing a gold processing operation in Zambia will take off by end of March 2020.

The company in which ZCCM-IH have a shareholding of 45% and 55% for KMSRD respectively has invested about US$ 3.5 million into a laboratory which has been set to determine the gold content accurately in the ore that will be received from various miners for them to get a fair share and value for their material.

Addressing the media in Lusaka on March 11, 2020, attended by the Zambian Business Times – ZBT, KMSRD Chief Executive Officer – CEO for the gold mining company – CGCZ Faisal Keer disclosed that about $250,000 has been invested in setting up a lab that will be able to process about 30 samples per day.

This partnership comes after ZCCM-IH announced its initiative to start buying gold from artisanal and small scale miners across the country as one of the steps towards formalization of gold mining and trading activities in Zambia.

Faisal said the lab will also enable the general public have their samples tested adding that the gold company has also procured ten gold mining mini- processing plants to be set-up in Rufunsa and other gold mining areas. The company has also procured some earth moving equipment.

He added that the gold mining processing plants have a capacity of processing 30 tonnes if gold per day and will be operational by first week of April, stating that out of the target from the gold mining plant is to produce 300 grams of gold per day, that translates into approximately 7.5 kgs per month.

“Once we have received the mineral processing license which is in the process and most likely to be out by end of this month, we will then proceed to setting up the Gold leaching plant in Rufunsa aimed at chemically processing the gold stock piles with a capacity of processing about 8,000 tonnes” he said.

At the same event, ZCCM-IH Chief Executive Officer Mabvuto Chipata said the company’s partnership with Karma Mining Services and Rural Development will go a long way as it has over 20 years of experience in gold processing and has developed several gold processing, production and trading operations.

He added that this investment is in line with ZCCM-IH’s strategic objective in mining chain value creation which is to diversify the company’s investments away from copper linked investments to other minerals such as gold and other precious metals.

Source: Zambian Business Times

ZCCM-IH and Karma Mining Services and Rural Development have entered have joint venture partnership through the incorporation of Consolidated Gold Company (CGC) of Zambia with 45% and 55% shareholding.
The company has invested $3.5 million in setting up a lab, procurement of gold milling plants and earth moving equipment. The gold milling plants have a capacity of processing 30 tonnes per day, and will be operational by the first week of April 2020.the target from the gold milling plants is to produce 300 grams of gold per day, that translates into approximately 7.5 kgs per month.,
During the laboratory media tour ZCCM-IH (CEO) Chief Executive Officer Mabvuto Chipata stated that this joint venture is to develop a gold processing and trading operation in Zambia.
“The operation of the project accords ZCCM-IH an opportunity to participate in the value chain of the gold sector through gold processing,” Chipata said.
He further said that the investment is in line with one of ZCCM-IH‘s strategic objectives in mining value creation which is to diversify the company’s investments away from copper linked investment to other minerals such as gold and other precious metals.
The total project investment is about $3.5 million.
Meanwhile CGC (CEO) Chief Executive Officer Faisal Keer said that this laboratory is targeted at the operations working with small scale gold miners.
“This lab is critical which is meant to determine the gold content accurately in the ore that received from the miners to get a faire share and value for their minerals,” keer said.
Keer also said that the company is helping licenced small scale gold miners in the area,
“And also providing access to earth machinery in order to increase gold ore production and aiming to transfer technical skills to the miners who are dealing in lode gold or quartz vein gold mining,” he added.
So far the company has invested about $250,000 in setting up the facility.
And eight gold mining and panning sites across the country to undertake a scoping exercise. Based on the scoping exercise ZCCM-IH has started purchasing gold in Rufunsa, Vubwi, Mumbwa and Luano.
The national target for gold from both primary and secondary sources is 40 tonnes and secondary sources on artisanal and small scale gold miners which is about 43% from the national target.

Zambia’s mining investment firm ZCCM Investment Holdings has announced that it has started buying gold from artisanal and small-scale miners across the country in what is seen as a follow up move to formalize gold mining and trading that has been happening in some parts of the country.

In an advisement circulated on March 6, 2019, ZCCM – IH is providing an open market and competitive prices for the gold hence gold sellers across the country are encouraged to take their gold to the firm for sale, but no further details have been availed.

ZCCM-IH had last year in December announced that it would set up centers for buying gold in strategic areas with deposits as a first step towards bringing artisanal and small-scale miners into the formal market.

When the Zambian Business Times – ZBT reached out to the mining investment firm, its Public Relations Manager Loisa Kakoma stated that the company is planning to hold a press briefing on the matter during this week where they will share more details on how the whole operation will be carried out.

ZCCM-IH buying of gold has also been linked to the central bank (Bank of Zambia – BOZ) which had in December 2019 announced that it is in the process of resuming the buying of gold to serve as an alternative to forex reserves.

The Bank governor Dr. Denny Kalyalya told ZBT in an exclusive interview back then that the move is a way of diversifying from the risk of only relying on holding of the US dollar reserves which is currently the main forex reserve held.

The BOZ governor however did not disclose the target value of gold reserves to bought and stock piled in 2020 stating that discussions with suppliers and modalities are still underway.

According to a research done by ZBT, gold reserves would complement the current US dollar held reserves which are now mostly generated from minerals royalties levied on copper exports. Gold reserves would become more efficient to stock pile as they would be bought using local currency with the country leveraging the current mining at existing large scale copper and gold mines at Kansanshi and Lumwana.

Other areas reported to have notable gold deposits are Mwinilunga in the North Western Province, Mumbwa and Luano in Central province, Rufunsa and Luangwa in Lusaka province and Petauke in the Eastern Province.

Government has indicated that Zambia aims to produce 40,000kg of gold in 2020 alone from primary and secondary sources including artisanal and small-scale miners.

Source: Zambia Business Times