Code of Best Practice for Zambia's Mining Industry
As direct follow up of the Round Table meeting with the Zambian mining stakeholders, Round Table Africa is asked to draft a code of best practice for Zambia’s mining industry. This will be ready by the end of 2010 and formulated by Kennedy Bota.
The mining sector remains Zambia’s most critical economic and even social sector (given its historical impact on the well-being of the nationals since the country attained its independence from Britain in 1964). The sector contributes the lion’s share to the country’s exports and foreign exchange. The mines that were virtually government owned up to the 1980s are now virtually in private hands. The mining companies are foreign owned. This implies a change in relational dynamics in the sector. The preponderance of complaints and at times violent protests from communities and employees and threats from opposition parties implies the kind of turbulence that does not augur well in the long run. Because mining is an unsustainable activity, it matters that sufficient mineral rents go into alternative sectors that would sustain the national economy once mining is exhausted.
It is also imperative that sufficient planning goes into post mining closure in terms of reclaiming the environment and sustaining the livelihood of communities around the mining sites. This is in line with the definition of sustainability that underpins the need to ensure that current exploitation of natural resources does not imperil the well being of future generations. It is not lost on any one that Zambia’s mining sector, in spite of its importance, remains disjointed and disorganized with stakeholders often addressing one another through the media rather than around a table. It has become patently clear that the key stakeholders in the mining sector need both a forum and a code of best practice to guide behaviour towards each other for the more beneficial exploitation of natural resources to both the investors and the country.
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