By JUDITH NAMUTOWE –
THE Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines Investment (ZCCM-IH) is in the  process of constructing a cement plant in Ndola with an initial  investment of US$600 million.
ZCCM-IH chief executive officer, Pius Kasolo said the plant which would be setup at Ndola Lime on the Copperbelt would be completed in three years time and is expected to create more than 1,000 permanent jobs.
Dr Kasolo said in an interview in Lusaka that the plant’s production capacity would be 5,000 tonnes per day and would absorb a good number of retrenched miners on the Copperbelt.
He said at construction stage, ZCCM-IH would create about 10,000 jobs but that once the plant was completed, the number would reduce to over 1,000.
“We have diversified and we are planning to setup a cement plant in Ndola with an initial investment of about $600 million.
“It will be a bigger cement plant which will be producing 5,000 tonnes of cement per day and we will be generating our own energy from the cement plant,” he said.
Dr Kasolo explained that finances were being put in place and the feasibility studies had since been conducted.
He said this was in line with the Zambia International Investment Forum (ZIIF -2016) which would be held under the theme “Investment for Industrialisation, Wealth and Job Creation.”
Commerce Trade and Industry Minister, Margaret Mwanakatwe launched the Investment Forum in Lusaka on Friday.
Dr Kasolo said once the prices of cement drop further, it would mean that more people would be able to construct houses and factories.
He said this meant that the more the prices of cement drop, the more industrialised Zambia would be.