$100m truck assembly plant coming up at Kalumbila

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mining truck frames within assembly
A US$100 million heavy-duty truck assembly plant is among the spin-off investments First Quantum Minerals (FQM) has attracted at Kalumbila, 150kms west of Solwezi where the global metals and mining company is constructing Sentinel Mine.

Other investments also running in millions of dollars are in construction, agro processing, sawmilling, hospitality, banking and energy.
FQM’s Kelvin Thomas, responsible for driving the development of an up-scale town at Kalumbila told a delegation of European Union (EU) ambassadors who last Friday toured the project that the investments can quickly be realised once land title is granted.
“We have keen investors who have huge interest in investing here, and we are ready to move once land title, key to unlocking all these investments, was granted,” Mr Thomas said.
“The core difference in the approach of this development is based on building a sustainable town and supporting industries that will outlast mining activities.”
FQM was in 2011 granted a large-scale mining licence to develop three potential mines at Kalumbila collectively called Trident-Sentinel, Intrepid and Enterprise.
Sentinel, a copper deposit expected to produce 300,000mtpa, is the first of the three.
Enterprise, a nickel deposit will be advanced once market conditions become attractive while the resource of Intrepid is yet to be determined.
A Belgium-based company has expressed interest to set up a US$100 million heavy-duty truck assembly plant in an overwhelming trend of investor interest at Kalumbila.
“No doubt that investment will create jobs and other sociol-economic benefits that will be augmented by other investments in retail, banking, construction and agro processing.”
In a related development, the EU ambassadors described as ‘impressive’ the   on-going resettlement of Kalumbila communities impacted by the development of the US$2 biillion Sentinel Mine by FQM.
“I would have imagined that the process would have taken a long time given the significant challenges in resettling communities,” said Mario Dacco, Italian ambassador to Zambia.
He was in the company of French ambassador Marie Annick Bourdin and his German counterpart Bernd Finke.
The three EU ambassadors were visiting Kalumbila, and joined ministers, traditional leaders, technocrats, academics and other imminent groups in the trend-setting stakeholder engagement by FQM
Kalumbila Minerals Limited (KML), a wholly-owned subsidiary of FQM has set aside a budget of us12.6 million to resettle 570 families affected by under-construction Sentinel Mine, the first of the three potential mines by the global metals and mining company at its new large-scale project, Trident.
“It is hard to imagine how much work has gone into the development of the mine and resettling communities. It is only appreciated when one has had an opportunity to see what is going on the ground,” said Mr Bourdin
Alex Mapapayi, KML’s Stakeholder Engagement Officer told the delegation of EU ambassadors that the company had put together an unrivalled compensation and resettlement package and backed it up with a humane approach, making the implementation almost ‘flawless’ and ‘seamless’.
“The process is going on very well, and resettled families have through a company survey expressed satisfaction. Of course, there is the odd one or two tempted by the attraction of exacting more and more demands,” Mr Mapapayi said.
“Overall, the gain across the whole suite of social and economic benefits is significant. The resettled have had their structures replaced with large and better ones, received cash and other incentives to ensure that the disruption to their lives was minimal.”

Daily Mail

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