Johannesburg - Zambia’s decision to drop a proposed
import duty for semi-processed copper materials will help stabilise smelters in
Africa’s second-biggest producer of the metal, the Chamber of Mines said.
Finance Minister Felix Mutati’s announcement that the
government will abandon plans to charge a 7.5 percent levy on copper
concentrates from January 1 is “reassuring,” said Talent Ng’andwe, the acting
chief executive officer at the industry body. The chamber has yet to receive
official communication on the matter, he said.
The group that represents the local units of Glencore,
Vedanta Resources and First Quantum Minerals had criticised the proposal,
saying Zambian mines didn’t produce enough concentrates to feed its smelters
and needed to import from operations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The duty would make smelters unprofitable, it told a parliamentary committee
last month.
Read also: Copper explodes past $6 000
“The Chamber of Mines welcomes this move,” Ng’andwe said
Wednesday by e-mail. “The year 2016 has not been a good year for the mining
sector and government must be commended for striving to make the mining sector
stay afloat.”
Mutati told lawmakers earlier Wednesday that the
government would scrap the proposed import duty, Reuters reported. Concentrates
are a mixture of crushed rock that contains about 40 percent copper, which is
then smelted to increase the metal content to above 90 percent. Congo is
Africa’s biggest producer of copper, used in electrical wiring and plumbing.
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