Zambian Chronicle

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By Geoffrey Kapembwa

July 14 (Bloomberg) — Indeni Refinery, Zambia’s only refiner of oil, may resume production on July 31 after it receives a shipment of crude next week, said Mwila Nkonge, a spokesman for the company.

A delivery will arrive at the port of Dar es Salaam in neighboring Tanzania on July 21, Nkonge said in an interview today from Ndola, 420 kilometers (261 miles) north of the capital, Lusaka. Production at Indeni was halted on July 9 when the refinery ran out of crude.

“We’ve been assured that crude oil will arrive on Monday, after which we expect to resume production,” Nkonge said.

Zambia is Africa’s biggest copper producer. In October, mining companies in the southern African nation stockpiled fuel after a supplier withheld a crude shipment from Indeni, resulting in gasoline shortages.

Konkola Copper Mines Plc, the Zambian unit of Vedanta Resources Plc, has sufficient supplies of diesel to avert a disruption to its operations, Sam Equamo, a spokesman for Konkola, said in a telephone interview today from Chingola in northern Zambia. The company is Zambia’s biggest copper producer.

Copperbelt Energy Corp., the second-largest distributor of electricity to mines in Zambia, has stockpiled more than 3 million liters (792,516 gallons) of diesel and will secure additional fuel in the event of shortages, Chief Executive Officer Neil Croucher said in a telephone interview today from Kitwe.

To contact the reporter on this story: Geoffrey Kapembwa in Lusaka via Johannesburg at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net.

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By Shapi Shacinda 

LUSAKA, July 17 (Reuters) - Owners of a new copper mine in Zambia plan to invest an initial $60.93 million to produce about 59,000 tonnes of copper concentrate at Mkushi project, a senior company official said on Thursday. 

The Mkushi copper project, a joint venture of African Eagle Resources Plc and CGA Mining Ltd., will initially produce around 36,500 tonnes in the first two years, rising to 59,000 tonnes, company data showed. 

Simon Plunkett, the Mkushi copper project manager, said a feasibility study would be concluded this year and construction of a concentrator and mine development will start in 2009. 

“Construction of a concentrator should be in 2009 and production in 2010 … (the $60.93 million) is the initial investment set-up, but it is an initial figure as there will be additional costs for power,” Plunkett said. 

Preliminary findings of an environmental assessment report submitted to the Environment Council of Zambia showed that the Mkushi mine would produce copper concentrate containing up to 30 percent copper. 

“Pit optimisation studies by CGA engineers indicate an optimum mine life of six years at an ore production rate of 1.6 million tonnes per annum at an average Insitu grade of 1.08 percent tonnes copper,” the report, seen by Reuters, said. 

Mining is planned to be through open pit using bulk blasting with hydraulic excavators and truck extraction, the company’s report said. 

Exploration activities have shown that mineralisation extends beyond an old open pit mine called Mushiwemba, and that it could be possible to produce “mineable resource.” 

Plunkett said the Mkushi mine project would initially employ 270 workers, with additional employment to be provided by other mine contractors that would be engaged to provide goods and service to the mine. 

Industry analysts say some copper mines abandoned decades ago, due to inappropriate and expensive mining methods in mineral-rich Zambia, were being revived following a surge in copper prices and rising demand of the metal. 

Copper mining is Zambia’s economic lifeblood and the vast mines are a major employer in this southern African country of 12 million people. (Reporting By Shapi Shacinda, Lusaka newsroom + 260-977 843 609/260-955 779 523) (Editing by Phumza Macanda) 

© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved.

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LUSAKA (AFP) — A top official from Zambia’s ruling party was facing the threat of expulsion Thursday after he called for the succession of President Levy Mwanawasa who suffered a stroke last month, the party announced.

Benny Tetamashimba, the ruling Movement for Multi-Party Democracy’s chief spokesman and deputy minister for works and supply, has been slapped with charges of indiscipline following his remarks that Mwanawasa should be replaced in view of his current hospitalisation in France.

Mwanawasa suffered a stroke late last month and remains in the intensive care unit at the Percy military hospital, near Paris.

“We are not condemning him about the need to elect a new president but the timing is wrong. It looks like he is in a hurry to replace President Mwanawasa when he is sick,” said Jeff Kaande, the party’s deputy national secretary.

Kaande said Tetamashimba has been charged with a number of offences, including bringing the party into disrepute, and would appear in front of a disciplinary committee before his fate is known.

“The president has been sick for only two weeks. Does this period call for a successor?” Kaande said in a statement.

Tetamashimba upset many of his colleagues by saying on Tuesday that it was time for the party to begin looking for a successor to the 59-year-old Mwanawasa whose recent stroke was his second in little over two years.

Asked about the expulsion threat, Tetamashimba said he could only be removed from his position as chairman for information and publicity by the MMD’s national convention which is not due to meet until next year.

“I am not an ordinary member of the party. I am very senior and they should know that I was elected by the party convention,” he told AFP.

There have been growing calls among Zambians for a thorough report on Mwanawasa’s health amid frustration at the lack of detailed information on his condition. His condition is officially described as stable.

Copyright © 2008 AFP. All rights reserved.

LUSAKA, July 17 (Xinhua) — Zambia’s constitution reform body has recommended that the last Wednesday of September every five years should be the election day, Times of Zambia reported on Thursday.

    The National Constitutional Conference democratic governance committee passed the election day resolution unanimously in Lusaka, according to the report.

    The current constitution allows the president to set and announce the date of elections in the election year.