Modern Mining April 2015

COUNTRY FOCUS – ZAMBIA

A Bell Equipment water bowser washes down the exposed ore – which assists the task of hand mining.

A Cat 730C articulated dump truck (ADT) hauls its load out of the pit. ADTs are preferred to rigid trucks at Kagem due to their better manoeuvrability.

A sample of ore from the reaction zone.

standards, no formal reporting structures, vir- tually no accountability, a huge environmental liability and, into the bargain, a demoralised management team and workforce,” he said. “In addition, the mining fleet was in poor shape with broken machines scattered across the property wherever they had broken down. We knew we had a big task ahead of us but we had confidence in the underlying quality of the asset – in terms of its orebody – and had no doubts that we could turn Kagem around.” This confidence was not misplaced and Kagem Mining Limited (75 % owned by Gemfields with the Government of Zambia holding the balance) turned a loss of US$13,5 million in its 2009 financial year into a profit of US$2 million in its 2010 financial year. It

has remained in profit ever since and in its lat- est annual results (to 30 June 2014) declared a profit of US$23,64 million. The company is expecting to produce 25 to 30 million carats of gemstones in FY2015 and accounts for a fifth of total world emerald production. Its efforts have made Zambia one of the ‘big three’ global producers of emeralds, alongside Colombia and Brazil. Explaining the path to profitability at Kagem, Harebottle told Modern Mining that Gemfields had concentrated on creating a modern, well- resourced, professional mining operation. “We have a state-of-the-art Mine Planning Division which has delivered on proper benching, smooth haul roads and improved reconcilia- tion,” he said. “Our plant fleet, in which we’ve

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