CAPE TOWN – Zambia’s Mineral Production Monitoring Support Project hopes to use the annual mining indaba in South Africa as an opportunity to tout for support, including investment into the copper producing country, its team leader said.
The MPMSP operates alongside Zambia’s mines ministry, helping keep track of production numbers reported by mining companies each month, which are used to calculate royalties due to the government, its director Ron Smith said on the sidelines of the conference in Cape Town.
“The idea of this project is to build capacity within the ministry so the ministry can be on top of the reporting coming out of the mines,” he said.
“So it is important that the ministry itself has the skills to be able to monitor this production.”
Zambia is one of the biggest copper producers in Africa, and draws revenue from mining companies through taxes and royalties.
Smith said the MPMSP, which has received about €5.3-million in funding from the European Union over the last three years, hoped to attract support at the indaba in Cape Town.
“The mining indaba is a good opportunity for us to interact with people who are interested in projects like this, and also might be interested in investing in Zambia,” he said.