Zambian Minister of Mines and Mineral Development has refused Australian Stock Exchange listed Argonaut Resources’ appeal against the grant of a new licence over the Lumwana West area, in the North-Western province of Zambia.
Minster Paul Kabuswe was ordered by the Zambian High Court in February to decide an appeal by Argonaut subsidiary Mwombezhi Resources against the cancellation of the Lumwana West licence.
On top of that, he was ordered to look into the regrant of the licence to a newly registered company.
The order came two months after the High Court suspended both the cancellation of the licence and the grant of the new licence over the mining area.
On Wednesday, Argonaut told shareholders that the company was now considering Kabuswe’s refusal of the appeal, noting that the appeals process was only the first of three forms of relief available to the company under the Zambian Mining Act.
Mining Weekly reports that the second process is an appeal of the Minister’s decision to the Mining Tribunal.
Argonaut is hoping to have the Lumwana West exploration reinstated to the company.
The company has been drilling the Nuyngu copper/cobalt deposit, at Lumwana West, since 2011.
In a related piece, BusinessTech Africa reported that Zambian copper mining giant Konkola Copper Mines Plc had announced that it will shut down its operation in Nchanga.
Konkola currently operates a smelter in Nchanga and said it will close the operation for 45 days between July and August to upgrade infrastructure.
In a media statement, KCM is expected to fork out $27.63-million on the process and this will include a control system upgrade for the smelter with a capacity of 311 000 t/y, the company said.
