Jump to navigation

Zambia

Vedanta tries to raise copper cash after Hichilema settled Konkola fight

Offering incentives and resolving disputes, the government is wooing investors old and new

Vedanta Resources, the mining and energy company controlled by Indian billionaire Anil Agarwal, is considering listing its Zambian copper unit to raise the finance it promised to invest in its operations at Konkola Copper Mines as part of the deal struck with the government.

‘Listing is an option,’ Ajay Goel, chief financial officer of Vedanta, said on 2 May, adding while this was ‘under active consideration’, there was no definitive timeline or plan for how much money Vedanta would seek to raise.

Mining insiders say that Vedanta was unpopular with the local community around Konkola and significantly under-utilised the mine's resources, President Hakainde Hichilema’s government is desperate to use Zambia’s mining and minerals to drive the economy (AC Vol 65 No 6, Can mega discovery end debt impasse? & Vol 64 No 24, Tracking the missing billions).

The company regained control of the KCM last year after Hichilema quietly ended a five-year dispute started by his predecessor Edgar Lungu’s Patriotic Front government. Lunga’s officials had seized Konkola after accusing Vedanta of lying about expansion plans and paying too little tax. Vedanta paid US$246 million to the government last July as part of the settlement to retake control of KCM.

 



Related Articles

Can mega discovery end debt impasse?

Bad management and lack of accountability – not the lack of new finds – have held back the mining business

After its two year-long attempt to restructure US$4 billion in dollar bonds fell apart last November, President Hakainde Hichilema's government has been turning to its mining industry to...


Tracking the missing billions

African, Asian and Latin American states have won a vote on tax reform at the UN – it could boost revenues and help them catch stolen cash

Ahead of the annual meeting of the UN General Assembly, African states were focusing on the need to claw back the billions of dollars lost in illicit financial...

READ FOR FREE

The bitter side of the boom

As the price of copper edges downwards, Zambia's trades unionists and opposition politicians are pressing to secure higher mining royalties and better working conditions. Many targeted companies are...


Too many defects

Having failed to secure an unconstitutional third term (AC Vol 42 No 10), President Frederick Chiluba lacks a successor since he sacked the former front-runners from his ruling...