By NATION REPORTER
KASONDE Mwenda says the Government should ban and criminalise the export of copper ore because it is long overdue.
Mr Mwenda said Government should act swiftly and criminalise the export of the mineral so that the country could benefit from its mineral resources.
“We do not even know the value of the minerals we are exporting,” he said.
Mr Mwenda said in an interview yesterday that the country was losing so much money by exporting copper concentrates as they usually contained other valuable mineral deposits, including cobalt, gold and other minerals.
“Selling copper ore is a sheer waste of our natural resources. It is time we had a ban on the export of our copper concentrates.
If Zambia is to reap maximum benefits from its copper production, Government should as a matter of urgency ban the export of copper concentrates as this has deprived the country of the much needed money,” he said.
Repeated efforts to get a comment from government proved futile as calls were not picked up or were truncated.
Mr Mwenda said value addition, as preached by the current administration was the only way the country could reap maximum benefits from many minerals it has such as manganese and emeralds.
He said it was also time the country came to reality that tax breaks were equally taking away from the nation’s natural wealth.
“We should learn from countries like Burkina Faso, including Malawi who have refused to take away their minerals and other products in raw form. We have so much money in form of our natural resources yet we are busy begging from IMF (International Monetary Fund),” Mr Mwenda said.He said it at the pace UPND was moving and implementing its policies, even if it was given 500 years to govern, Zambia would still be poor.Mr Mwenda said the country had increased production of copper yet it benefitted a little and so it was only prudent to produce a little with value addition and earn more.
“Copper for 2024 was 820, 000 metric tonnes an increase by 12 percent and the current price is US$8, 932 per tonne.
Last year, we minted US$7.3 billion from copper alone…..does that make sense?
And yet we are the sixth poorest nation in the world which made US$7.3 billion. These are not my words but those of the Minister of Mines.
What do we gain from that? Nothing! We are a country that bows before IMF begging for US$1.3 billion and free from tax at 35 percent while you, as a citizen, almost half of the money that you make goes to Government in form of tax.