Copperbelt Trade & Development Forum - CTDF

On 1st June 2022, the Copperbelt Trade & Development Forum (CTDF) was among the key stakeholders identified by the Ministry of Mines in the review process of the Mineral Resources Development Policy.

As an organisation, we made three critical submissions in line with the African Mining Vision (AMV) and SDGs which the Ministry of Mines had omitted in the draft policy:-

1. Intergenerational equity by ensuring that a mineral revenue stabilisation fund is set aside as a reserve to ensure that future generations are not deprived of our current mineral wealth
2. Business & Human Rights so that the UN Guiding Principles on the role of State to PROTECT and the role of mining foreign investors to RESPECT human rights as well as REMEDY human rights violations is embedded in our Mineral Resources Development Policy
3. Sub-national mineral revenue transfers by ensuring that a mineral royalty sharing provision is prescribed.

Lastly we are also advocating that a specific policy guideline on the just energy transition is also embedded as an emerging issue to combat climate change.

This must compel companies to set up their own smart energy generation infrastructure such as the recent announcement by First Quantum Minerals in North-Western province to invest in renewable sources of solar and wind energy that will empower their mining operations away from the ZESCO national grid.

Currently, mining companies consume over 50% of Zambia's electricity which is also not reliable because it is dorminantly hydro and prone to draughts which can disrupt mining productivity thereby undermine the ambitious vision of attaining 3 million tonnes of copper production in the next 10 years.

Furthermore, the policy must also discourage investments towards thermal energy plants like Maamba Collieries and Collum Coal Mine as well as suspending all ear marked projects around the use of coal because it is one of the major drivers of climate change.