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More than 20 000 miners to lose jobs at Mopani

MessagePosté: Mer 1 Oct 2014 08:53
de Laf1986
Mopani Copper Mines Plc says more than 20 000 Zambian miners are about to lose jobs following the withholding of tax refunds by the PF government.

Mopani chief executive Officer Danny Callow says the withholding of the money has made operations of the mine unsustainable and many on-going projects are about to be cancelled.

Mopani is owed about $200 million in value-added tax refunds by the Zambia government through the Zambia Revenue Authority.

The Zambia Revenue Authority has withheld tax refunds of more than $600 million over the past year from companies that failed to comply with a rule requiring them to supply import documents from the country their exports end up in. The mines say they can’t provide the papers because they sell to traders and don’t know the final destination of the metal.

Now Mopani says the withheld repayments have led to cancellation of projects and slowing production.

Mopnai says jobs of than 20 000 Zambians will soon be affected as they hang in the balance.

Mopani, a unit of the world’s third-largest miner by market value, is undertaking a $323 million investment at its Nkana mine near the Zambian city of Kitwe. The unit, which has over 20,000 employees in Zambia, has invested more than $2 billion over the past 14 years.

This project is one of the many that are affected by the PF government’s decision to withhold tax.