‘STOP RAW MINERAL EXPORTS’

By PETER SICHALI GOVERNMENT and the private sector should significantly invest in mineral processing to enhance value addition, mining Expert Danny Mwila has said. Mr Mwila said the country should start exporting processed minerals. He said the country had continued exporting jobs through exportation of raw material. “Instead of just exporting unprocessed copper or manganese, we should add value to avoid exporting jobs,” he said. Mr Mwila said value addition should be done by Zambians as a way of creating jobs locally. He said Government and the private sector should come up with cheaper loan facility that would enable citizens invest in value addition. Mr Mwila said most mining houses were owned by foreigners resulting to massive externalization of funds. He said the continued externalization of funds had contributed to depreciation of the local currency. Mr Mwila said set up processing facilities in the country wiil bring foreign exchange and create jobs. “The country can reduce level of unemployment by adding value to our minerals before export,” he said. Mr Mwila said there was need for more companies to come on board and start processing of minerals. “We need to see more companies adding value to our copper, Cobalt, Manganese, gold and other minerals,” Mr Mwila said.