Zambia: Foreign firms rescue coal sector

  1. Posted on Friday 9 January 2009 - 10:18
    Sam Banda Junior
    Image of Sam Banda Junior
    Sam Banda Junior, AfricaNews reporter in Blantyre, Zimbabwe Photo: John Lindhout
    Two firms, one from Singapore and another one from London are said to have been short listed to run Zambia's largest coal mine. They are Singapore's Nava Bharat Pte Limited and London's Vedanta Resources Plc who were successful after a bid four months ago and were asked to submit their final offers.
    De brug levert veel werk op voor Zambiaanse arbeiders
    The southern African country - one of the largest producers of copper as its mainstay - is said to be planning to purchase copper concentrate from Frontier in Congo. A Reuters report said Thursday the two foreign firms submitted final offers to run the largest coal mine and construct a thermal power station.

    The report further said that Vedanta and Nava Bharat were shortlisted in October in response to the bid from ZCCM-Investments Holdings (ZCCM-IH), which wholly owns Maamba Collieries Limited.

    But ZCCM-IH’s Chief Executive William Musama said that a preferred bidder would be selected soon.

    "ZCCM-IH is pleased to announce that the offers have been submitted by Nava Bharat (Singapore) Pte Ltd., and Vedanta Resources Plc," Musama said. ZCCM-IH called for the tenders in 2007 which attracted 10 firms.

    According to the country’s media reports Maamba Collieries produced about 600,000 tonnes of coal per year in the 1980s, but its production has gone down. Recently, some mines were threatened with closure due to low copper prices and high fuel costs.

    But the country responded quickly by reducing fuel prices after the crude oil prices went down on the international market.

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