State-owned Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines Investments Holdings (ZCCM-IH), has announced that its subsidiary, Consolidated Gold Company of Zambia has opened a gold testing and processing laboratory that would facilitate the assessment of locally mined gold.
Mabvuto Chipata, CEO, ZCCM-IH, said: “ZCCM-IH has embarked on an ambitious investment programme to harness the gold potential in the country as mandated by government, and that so far the company has started buying gold from artisanal and small-scale gold miners as one of the steps towards the formalisation of gold mining and trading activities.”
Chipata said the company is offering a competitive price, starting from K550 ($29) per gram, and depending on the purity, using thorough technical assaying methods, the price may be higher as compared to prices found on the ground.”
Faisal Keer, CEO, Consolidated Gold Company, said the company has invested $3.5m in setting up a laboratory, procurement of gold milling plants and earth moving equipment.
“The lab is critical in the process as it is meant to determine the gold content accurately in the ore that will be received from various miners, for them to get a fair share and value for their material. It will be able to process about 30 samples per day,” he said.
“The gold milling plants have a capacity of processing 30 tonnes per day, and operational from April 2020,” he said.
Keer said the company is helping small scale miners including those dealing in lode gold or quartz gold to develop their mines and increase the mineral ore production by providing mining technical expertise and access to earth moving machinery.
Consolidated Gold Company of Zambia Limited is a Joint Venture partnership between ZCCM-IH (45%) and Karma Mining Services and Rural Development (55%) and aims to develop gold processing and trading in Zambia.
