Modern Mining April 2015

feature COUNTRY FOCUS – ZAMBIA

Kagem – a thoroughly modern gemstone mine This panoramic view of the Chama pit gives an idea of the scale of the Kagem operation. While Zambia is noted for its world-class copper deposits, not so well known is the fact that it now hosts the world’s largest emerald mine, Kagem, which has been transformed over the past seven years from an under-funded, inefficient, loss-making operation into one of the success stories of Zambia’s mining industry. Responsible for the turnaround is London-based, AIM-quoted Gemfields, which has invested well over US$60 million in the mine since acquiring it in 2008. Modern Mining’s Arthur Tassell recently visited the site – located about 60 km to the south of Kitwe on the Copperbelt – to see for himself the scale of the transformation.

T he first thing that the visitor notes on entering the mining area at Kagem is the sheer size of the op- eration. Most coloured gemstone mining around the world tends to take place on a relatively small scale – often by informal miners – with mining methods typically being very labour intensive. Kagem, by contrast, is highly mechanised – at least in terms of its stripping and waste removal – and Modern Mining saw an impressive fleet of modern excavators, articulated dump trucks and drill rigs operating in the main pit, Chama, which is now 120 m deep and roughly a kilo-

metre in length. Totalling nearly 100 units if ancillary equipment is included, the mining fleet handles nearly a million tonnes of rock a month (considerably more in some months), a figure which is dramatically up on the ap- proximately 125 000 tonnes a month being achieved when Gemfields acquired Kagem. Talking to Modern Mining from London in a phone interview, Gemfields’ CEO, Ian Harebottle, cited the problems that the com- pany inherited in 2008: “We found a site with a huge waste removal backlog, no ore at the pit bottom for production, no effec- tive security systems, poor health and safety

32  MODERN MINING  April 2015