Zambia starts revoking idle mining licenses

The Zambian government has started revoking mining licenses for the mines which have remained dominant, a senior official said on Friday.

The government warned last year that it would start repossessing the dormant mining licenses and give them to serious investors. The miners had been given a 90-day notice.

Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Mines and Minerals Development Paul Chanda said it has started revoking more than 600 mining licenses because the owners were not utilizing them.

He said there were a number of both large and small scale miners that were not utilizing their mining licenses.

"We are currently canceling mining licenses that have been dormant and those that have not been renewed. The process will be ongoing, we want to issue the licenses to serious investors who will utilize them," he was quoted as saying by the Times of Zambia.

The government, he said, has introduced an online licensing system which was making it easier to monitor mining activities as well as being used to automatically cancel the licenses which were not being utilized or renewed.

A number of foreign firms from Australia and the United Kingdom have expressed interest in putting up mining projects in areas already licensed. he added. Endit