Zambia expects Russia to deliver on its promise to map mineral deposits in the resources-rich African country and eventually invest in their extraction, its ambassador in Moscow told Sputnik in an interview.
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 09th November, 2020) Zambia expects Russia to deliver on its promise to map mineral deposits in the resources-rich African country and eventually invest in their extraction, its ambassador in Moscow told Sputnik in an interview.
The plan was discussed by Zambian President Edgar Lungu and Russian parliamentary speaker Valentina Matviyenko during her trip to Zambia in February of last year, but it never took off because of the coronavirus pandemic.
"My government is looking forward to the prompt implementation of [this project], doing the geological mapping of the country to define various types of minerals that Zambia has so that we know the value of the mineral resource the country has," Shadreck Luwita said.
During his working visit in February 2019, Zambian Foreign Minister Joseph Malanji told Sputnik his country was looking for Russian investors to develop its mining industry. Luwita confirmed that the offer was still on the table.
"I have interacted with Russian chamber of commerce and industry, and of course I made an appeal to Russian investors in the mining sector to partner with Zambian business entities to invest in the mining sector," he said.
The diplomat added that Zambia was looking to Russia to fill in the void after Swiss-based mining company Glencore pulls out of the Mopani copper mine and take over a 49 percent stake in it, in addition to extracting copper, gold and diamonds at the Greenfield mines.
