By SYLVESTER MWALE
in SERENJE –
A COMPANY owned by Indian investors has established a manganese ore processing plant in Serenje district in Central Province at a cost of more than US $500,000.
PLR Project Zambia Limited general manager Divineni Prasad said in an interview that more than 150 people have been employed directly while another 1,500 have been engaged indirectly, following the commissioning of the plant last May.
The company is engaged in the extraction, processing as well as refining and marketing of manganese and associated metals from geological formations in Central and Luapula Provinces.
.Manganese
Its project comprises open pit mining operations for base metals, a processing plant in Serenje and associated infrastructure to mine and process ore from defined resources in manganese deposits.
Mr Prasad said Zambia was currently experiencing a great business environment although most of its products were exported because usage of the manganese products was very low in the country.
“The business environment is very good in Zambia and we have invested over US $500,000 in the plant. However, we are taking almost our entire products to Europe because there is no usage.
“The only company we have taken our products Kafue Steal Plant in Kafue, but most of it is exported to European countries where it commercially used in the manufacturing of steal,” he said.
Mr Prasad also urged the Government to consider banning the export of all minerals because it disadvantaged his company as it cost around US $50 per tonne while silico manganese was costing US $100.
Mr Prasad also revealed that the company has built a health post at K1 million as part of its corporate social responsibility programme.
Manganese from Mansa area is rich in quality and has encountered in a range of 40 to 75 per cent purity during exploration activities.
The company is also actively carrying out drillings across its large licence holdings and is focused on increasing production and exports of a high grade and high quality manganese ore from its other projects.
