Message Dim 10 Mai 2015 08:55

ZCCM-IH injects $ 50m in Maamba Collieries Thermal power pla

ZCCM Investment Holdings Plc has invested in excess of US $ 50 million in the Maamba Collieries Thermal Power Plant project to help add 300 megawatts of power to the national grid.

And the company says it paid US $40 million as maiden dividends to its majority shareholders, the government last year.

Speaking in an interview at the just-ended Copperbelt Mining Expo in Kitwe yesterday, ZCCM IH Investor Relations officer Joseph Lungu said the power situation in the country must be managed and sustained for the mine operations to thrive.

“We all know what happened last week (national power outage). That is an investment that ZCCM IH is making and it will supplement efforts being made to mitigate the situation and sustain power supply for the industry,” Lungu said.

He further said the company had come up with a diversification programme into real estate, minerals such as manganese and value addition.

“We are also seriously looking into issues of value addition to copper. We produce this metal but it goes out like that. We need to add value to that copper within Zambia itself because that will create employment and add value to the economy and that will be a big plus to citizens. We are looking at projects such as production of copper wires and a large scale,” Lungu.

And Lungu said the decision by the government to sell down its shares in the company from 87.5 percent to 60 percent meant that there would be more Zambians becoming shareholders of the company.

The government currently owns 87.5 percent of ZCCM IH.

“In the 2015 budget, Finance minister Alexander Chikwanda indicated that the government wants to sell down its shares from 87.5 to 60 percent. This year is key because the company is taking steps to implement that process. The portfolio of ZCCM IH is that it owns shareholdings in most of the big mines, Mopani, Kansanshi, Chibuluma Mines, Lubambe, KCM and others. These are big mines that employ thousands of people,” Lungu said.

He said buying shares in ZCCM IH meant that the people would be indirectly buying shares in big mining entities.

Lungu said many mining projects that were being undertaken in the mines had a positive impact on the Zambian economy.

“At ZCCM IH we have a we chief executive officer Dr Pius Kasolo who is experienced in mining, he started in October and the vision is transform the company,” he said.