Merci pour ces précisions Bingogo.
En lien et sur le site de KCM :
http://www.kcm.co.zm-----------------------
KCM CEO post-IPO Announcement, Lusaka, Zambia, November 17, 2010
Speech By KCM CEO Mr Kishore Kumar Delivered at post-IPO Announcement Luncheon, Inter-Continental Hotel, Lusaka, November 17, 2010
The Guest of Honour, Hon Dr Situmbeko Musokotwane, Minister of Finance and National Planning,
Minister of Mines and Mineral Developments, Hon Maxwell Mwale, MP,
Minister of Labour, Hon Austin Liato, MP
All Cabinet Ministers and Deputies Present,
The Chairman ZCCM-IH
Permanent Secretaries,
Your Excellencies and Heads of Missions,
Heads of Government Departments,
Your Worship, the Mayor of Lusaka,
District Commissioners,
Members of Parliament,
Board Members of ZCCM-IH, KCM
Heads of Business,
Colleagues from KCM
The Press,
All Distinguished Guests,
It is my honour and privilege to welcome you all to this very special luncheon. I do this on behalf of the Management and the hard-working staff of KCM.
Ladies and gentlemen, this event comes just seven months after you and many others gathered here travelled to Chililabombwe to join the KCM family in celebrating a milestone achievement; the completion of Phase 1 of the Konkola Deep Mining Project (KDMP).
I am pleased to report that Phase-2 of the KDMP is progressing well and we are on track to completing the project in 2012. At KCM, we view the KDMP as a ‘game-changer’, to use a sporting term. Much has already been said and written about the scale of the project, the cost, the technology involved in its development, and the speed and efficiency of its execution so far. The impact of the project on KCM’s overall production capacity is expected to be just as noteworthy, with output of ore jumping from 2m to 7.5m tonnes/annum.
I am speaking about the KDMP because it is the centrepiece of the many developments that have taken place at KCM at a very fast pace since Vedanta was invited into the company as a strategic equity partner by the Government of the Republic of Zambia exactly six years ago this month.
These developments have included the construction of ultra-modern process plants in the shape of the environment-friendly, direct-to-blister 311, 000-capacity Nchanga smelter, a 6mtpa-capacity concentrator at Konkola, an 1,850-tpd acid plant, modernising and expanding the refinery at Nkana, Kitwe, and opening up new open pits.
Other projects currently on the cards or under-development include the Chingola Refractory Ore (CRO) project, another concentrator and the development of the Upper OreBody (UOB), all of them at Nchanga in Chingola. We believe that these projects have put KCM on a firm footing to becoming a 500 000-tpa producer of finished copper in the next two years when Zambia expects to hit the 1-mtpa mark.
In carrying out these projects that have cost nearly $2bn, the basic aim has been to add value to our primary products of copper and cobalt, the two commodities for which Zambia is world famous (with the Victoria falls coming a close third on the list) and to turn KCM into a world-class company meeting all the global benchmarks of quality, safety, health, environment and cost of production.
So far, these projects have extended the life of mine significantly; 23 years in the case of Konkola, 15 years for the open pits. They have made KCM the largest private-sector employer in Zambia with over 400 fresh graduates taken on in the last three years, laid a huge platform for the transfer of the latest mining-related technology into Zambia and provided business for thousands of our local vendors.
At KCM, we call this empowering our people. And this has been the overarching objective of every investment that we have made or committed to making in the future. It is the reason we are here today; to mark another major step in KCM’s continuing efforts to ensure that every Zambian has an opportunity to play a part in the growth of KCM and the development of this nation. The objective of this luncheon is share with your, our honoured guests the good tidings announced earlier in the week [in London] of KCM’s intention to float its shares on the London stock exchange in the next few weeks and later on, a secondary listing on the Lusaka stock exchange.
ZAMBIAN MINING INDUSTRY
Ladies and gentlemen, at independence, Zambia was a recognised leading and major producer of copper in the world, with output of over 700 000 tpa and a listing on the London Stock Exchange until the 1990s. The listing of KCM shares on the London Stock Exchange confirms to the international market that Zambia is back as a major player and producer of high quality copper.
What are the implications for Zambia and KCM of listing in London? To begin with, a London and Lusaka Stock Exchange listing provides an opportunity for ordinary Zambians, Zambian pension funds and KCM employees to buy shares directly in KCM and to play a direct part in the way the company is run. This confirms Government’s desire and policy for wider share ownership in the country’s mining industry and economic empowerment of the Zambian citizenry.
Because mining is such an expensive undertaking, few of us will ever get the chance to ‘own’ a mine but here is an opportunity for every Zambian, whether they live in Lusaka or Nampundwe, Livingstone or Chipata, to own a part of one of fastest-growing mining operations in Africa.
To all those risking the lives of our young people by sending them to forage for copper ore in the dangerous dump sites around Chingola, I say here is an opportunity to invest your resources in a mining company that cares about safety, health and the environment and to earn good clean money while contributing to the development of our communities.
Secondly, the transaction provides Zambia with a useful marketing tool to attract many other global players to our country as a desirable destination for investment on the African continent, not just in mining, but also other sectors. We saw this in South Africa when Anglo American, Billiton, Old Mutual, Investec and South African Breweries listed on the London Stock Exchange.
The same was the case for Ghana when Ashanti Goldfields was listed on the London Stock Exchange. Zambia is endowed with abundant mineral resources – many of which should now receive serious prospecting and international investor interest as a direct result of the London listing. Other economic sectors, in particular tourism, will also benefit from the positive international profile that a London listing brings to Zambia, creating more jobs for our people and bringing more money into the national treasury to meet the many pressing needs of our growing population.
With all the investment that has gone into KCM in the last five years, we believe that listing on the London Stock Exchange will unlock the company’s true market and economic value which is currently hidden – resulting in a huge opportunity cost to the country. The unlocked economic benefits of KCM to Zambia should allow our government to begin to realise its investments across the whole mining sector.
The listing should raise fresh capital on both the international market and the Zambian market, money that will allow KCM to complete ongoing major capital projects in Zambia such as the Konkola Deep Mining Project. It also allows the shares of KCM to become liquid and reflect its true value. The reflection of such value will allow ZCCM-IH to know, on a daily basis, the valuation of its stake in KCM as well as enable ZCCM-IH and the Government of Zambia to realise value in KCM if this was desired at a future date.
Ladies and gentlemen, in a world where the conduct of major corporations is now the subject of close scrutiny by shareholders, the media and the general public because of the far-reaching potential consequences of their misdeeds, London and Lusaka Stock Exchange listing will commit KCM to greater transparency in its operations, partly as an obligation under the requirements for advanced Stock Exchange listing. This would allow Government and ZCCM-IH to better explain any issues that arise on an on-going basis in a company in which there remains a significant public interest.
A successful listing of KCM on London and the Lusaka Stock Exchange sets an example for other companies on the Zambian mining scene to follow, thereby providing the same benefits to ZCCM-IH, Government and Zambian public that come with the KCM listing.
For ZCCM-IH, a successful listing in London opens an opportunity for its nominated Directors on KCM to serve on an international Board, further helping to expose our people to the workings of advanced capital markets. This can only be good for the development of our own markets.
Ladies and gentlemen, as a nation, we are not doing very well at our national sport of football in which both government and many corporate entities continue to invest billions of Kwacha annually. Nor did we cover ourselves with glory at the recent Commonwealth games in India.
We at KCM feel that it is time to concentrate our energies and resources in competing in the one sport in which we have a proven record of performance; the Champions League of Copper Producers. This year, the expected national output is 800 000 tonnes. In the next two years, we should be doing 1 mtpa. That puts us within the medals bracket.
With thousands of shareholding Zambians as players and supporters, this is one game where we have a genuine chance of being world champions in just a few years’ time.
I thank you all.
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KCM Post-IPO Lunch held at Inter-Continental Hotel, Lusaka, Zambia November 17, 2010
Speech by Finance and National Planning Minister Dr Situmbeko Musokotwane at KCM Post-IPO Lunch held at Inter-Continental Hotel, Lusaka November 17, 2010 (A Transcription)
Ladies and gentlemen, please allow me to start my speech be reflecting a little on my personal experiences as an individual regarding the mining sector on Zambia.
I graduated from high school and entered university at a time when the mining sector was at its peak in Zambia in the ‘70s. What I remember at this time, from that era as we were leaving school, there were employers lining up for us, either to take us to training or to give us jobs.
That was the situation; employers queuing up to take us for training or to give us jobs. When I entered university and at that time Dr Jacob Mwanza (now board member of Konkola Resources) had just become Vice-Chancellor just shortly before he became Vice-Chancellor . As we entered university, we found life that was unbelievable. As students, we were having breakfast....
The economic foundation that created all this was beginning to crumble. The mining sector was crumbling. That is what happened. And it was same story in many other sectors of the economy.
As many of us have observed in the year 2000, that is what created all this contraction. That is what created the crumble of the rail system because those trains were made first and foremost to haul copper. The cargo disappeared. That is how the industrial base collapsed because it all depended on consumerism from the mine workers and others. All that collapsed. Today is a proud day for all of us because the destruction that took place in 30 years, that destruction has been reversed in 10 years. Normally it is easier to destroy than to build, but in this particular case, the opposite has happened; reconstruction has taken only 10 years. The destruction took 30 years.
So, I think the Zambians are entitled to congratulate themselves for the success. Why have we succeeded? Because I think we reversed some of the mistakes we made from the time when we were milking the mining sector out of all the investment surpluses. That is what caused the collapse and people say it’s the price that went down. No, it’s not, because copper prices went down everywhere.
Chile, as we have heard, came from 300 000 tonnes(pa), half of what we used to produce at the time, and today they produce 5milion tonnes. Columbia, I think, is it Columbia? The biggest producer from Chile, they produce about 2million tonnes..Peru, yes, Peru, 2million. So the prices were low everywhere but other people did not make that mistake of milking the cow to the bone. They allowed it to grow. So the first thing that accounts for this success is that we are allowing the cow to feed the young ones so that it produces young ones, so that it produces some more. And this is the mistake that we shall never repeat. As we do this, I think as a big lesson in the wider concept of economic management. I any areas in our economy where we have managed to attract capital, we see fundamental changes. For example, (the) telecoms industry ten to 15 years ago, to get a telephone line, you had to queue up for..I don’t know. May be months to one year.
Then the mobile (phone) revolution came. We could have made that mistake of saying these mobile phones services can only be provide by government. In other words, ZAMTEL (Zambia Telecommunications Corporation) but there was wisdom to say anyone with capital can do it. The end result, in most parts of the country today, you have seen the expansion of the telecommunications industry. So I am happy that the mining sector is joining these sectors where we have opened up and we are seeing this phenomenal growth.
I think the advantages arising out of this transaction have been explained over and over by previous speakers but since this success has come about, how should we avoid the mistakes that we made in the past?
Well, from our side, I think we have allowed free capital to come and do the job...job well done. From the perspective of the investors, one of the criticisms in the 70s was that you had it all. No local participants in the economy. With what has been done now, to list on the London stock exchange and Lusaka stock exchange, that criticism goes away because everyone is free to participate. And I am happy that this mistake of the multinationals in the 70s, that mistake has been addressed because now we are open for each one of us to participate and that is good.
I have also said that as we go forward and I have said this to you Mr Kumar (KCM CEO) over and over again, we can have all the laws in this country to protect this investment, but the most important thing to do to protect this investment is to make yourself relevant to the community.
When you are relevant to the community because you are giving jobs, you are giving them training, you are giving them business opportunity, you are paying your taxes, no one will attack because they will appear to everyone to be crazy. So, I think that was the mistake in the 70s again where there was a perception that you had it all and I repeat the best way to protect investment is to become relevant to the Zambian people and I am happy you are doing that.
To my Zambian colleagues, I say e made the mistake of over-milking the cow in the 70s. it’s very easy to make that mistake again. Very,very easy. Some of the stories I hear from our friends, they say; “Ah, the Chinese!” “Ah, infestors!’ referring to investors. It is what everybody else in the world is avoiding. China, a communist state, the most communist state, opened up. Today, Mercedes Benz cars, probably the biggest number of ,Mercedes Benz cars are made in China, not Germany. There are so many examples. Why did a communist state like China, so nationalistic, why did they open up? Because they realised that when you open up, you attract investment, that you create jobs, you create wealth, you provide more freedom to society.
So to my colleagues the Zambians, I say let’s not repeat the mistake of the ‘70s. some of us went through the ‘lost decades’. We don’t want our children and grandchildren to go through that again. My final comments...yes indeed, I think that the one million tonnes of copper (projected national output by 2012) is within reach but at this stage, we can do more than that. We need that because there are so many youths who are roaming the streets without jobs.
In the ‘70s there were only 3million of us. Toda, there are four times the number. So if there were four/five mines in the ‘70s that created enough jobs, today you need more than that because technology has also evolved. You employ less labour. You know the resources are there, so the challenge to you, the challenge to all the mining companies, present and all those who are listening; we are open. Come and invest in Zambia. Come and make profits, come and pay your taxes, come and create wealth for Zambia.
Finally, finally, I wish to congratulate you Mr Kumar, your management team, the ZCCM-IH team, my colleagues in the Ministry of Mines, everybody who had to do with this. I know the PS (Permanent Secretary) has been working very hard on this.
The management and the workers at KCM, they are a source of pride for us. If every other company, whether in mining, agriculture, did the same thing as KCM, this country would make progress and I believe that we are at the verge of that breakthrough when the economy of this country is going to be transformed in a very very fundamental way for the benefit of us all.
I thank you for your attention.
Lun 22 Nov 2010 23:30