YALUMA

By CHARITY MOONGA-
VICE-PRESIDENT Guy Scott has urged the mining sector in Zambia to create more employment opportunities to absorb the ever-increasing job seekers.
Dr Scott said there were huge numbers of people on the labour market and the mining sector should assist absorb some of them by providing employment.
“There are hundreds of people on the labour market and the mining industry doesn’t quite absorb them. You may be mining quite happily in a wall fence but it will be a problem, make a fair judgment and don’t behave as if there is nothing happening outside,” Dr Scott said.
The Vice-President was speaking in Lusaka yesterday when he officially opened the 4th Zambia International Mining and Energy Conference (ZIMEC) and Exhibition at the Government Complex.
The two-day conference and exhibition has attracted more than 300 participants with over 40 exhibitors from different countries.
Dr Scott said the mining sector should make a fair judgment and employ some of the people that were on the labour market as a lot of Zambians did not have jobs.
Meanwhile, Dr Scott has called on the investors to consider diversifying from complete dependence on copper to other sectors.
He said Zambia’s history had been entrenched in the copper mining industry and it was important for the country to diversify in other sectors such as agriculture.
Dr Scott said agriculture was also a good investment and urged investors to tap into the sector.
“Our history is deeply rooted in the copper industry. Complete dependence on the mining sector has not gone but agriculture is also good, so let us be open-minded and invest in that sector,” he said.
Dr Scott said the Government would give investors support in all the sectors.
Earlier, Mines, Energy and Water Development Minister Christopher Yaluma said the mining industry had continued to record growth but it was sad that poverty levels had continued to be high despite this development.
Mr Yaluma urged mining companies to work with communities so that funds from the mines could be used to develop areas they operated from.
He said the mining policy was under review and would soon be approved to enhance monitoring of mining companies.
Chamber of Mines president Emmanuel Mutati said more than US$8 billion had been invested in both new and expanded mining operations.
He said poor data collection had continued to spread views with little base and called for an improvement on data collection as regards to the operations of the mining sector.
Mr Mutati said his organisation was also working out modalities to ensure that mining companies left the mines better than they found them in the event that they failed to run them or at the point of exit.