Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines Investment Holdings Plc (ZCCM-IH) has recently undertook the construction of a USD 600 million cement plant in Ndola city in Zambia’s Copperbelt.
The plant will be developed under the subsidiary Ndola Lime Company Limited (NLC) and is expected to be finished in three years while creating 10,000 temporary jobs and 1,000 permanent positions.
The plant will have a production capacity of 5,000 tonnes per day and is meant to support those miners whom lost their jobs in the region and will benefit from the different vacancies opened, explained ZCCM-IH CEO, Dr. Pius Kasolo.
ZCCM-IH also seeks to diversify its business activities since most of its subsidiaries are involved with copper exploration and production as Mopani Copper Mines Plc, Chambish Metals Plc and Kansanshi Mining Plc.
In 2015 it announced developments at its partially-owned subsidiary Maamba Collieries Limited (MCL), which produced 100,000 tonnes of high-grade coal in the fiscal year 2014/2015 and that counts with its own power source.
The cement plant with which the company plans to diversify its portfolio of products, will also count with its own source of energy and is set to be the biggest one in terms of production, explained Dr. Kasolo.
At a rate of 5,000 tonnes per day and 168 working days per annum, the cement plant is expected to produce 840,000 tonnes of limestone per annum that is far above the peak of 609,000 tonnes of limestone produced by NLC in 2009 according to the company’s latest statistics.
Higher production of cement in Zambia is bringing prices down with a 50 kg bag of cement being sold in the market at ZMW 62 down from an average of ZMW 75 in the recent years according to a survey undertook by Daily Mail Zambia.
However, this slump in prices is good for Zambia’s industrialisation objectives since lower prices mean that more people will be able to develop more real estate projects and factories according to Dr. Kasolo.
