• Declaring certain minerals as strategic reserves will mean that they cannot be sold anyhow.
• Government will be having some strategic reserves from the exchange rate.
• It is the Association’s hope that this will be actualized as soon as possible.
Association of Mine Suppliers and Contractors has called on government to consider declaring minerals such as Sugilite, Gold and Emerald as strategic reserves.
Speaking to Money FM News, Association President Costa Mwaba noted that declaring certain minerals as strategic reserves will mean that they cannot be sold anyhow because government will have interest.
Mr. Mwaba stated that when the country gets to that level, it will be easy to address challenges that the country is struggling with like fuel and subsidies, because government will be having some strategic reserves from the exchange rate.
“We need to have certain minerals and the government is on firm ground they are talking about things like that. Declaring certain minerals as strategic reserves will simply mean that we will not be selling them anyhow.”
“For example if sugilite is declared as a strategic mineral reserve, you will not be moving with it anyhow because the government will have interest. If emerald is declared like that, if gold is declared like that, you will not moving all over with it,” Mr. Mwaba stated.
He however noted that government is already moving in that direction and it is the Association’s hope that this will be actualized as soon as possible.
“When we get to that level, all these issues that we are struggling with like fuel and subsidies will be dealt with because government will be having some strategic reserves from the exchange rate. We can just say we are offloading so many tonnes of copper on the market, and will get dollars in our reserves and that will change the situation.”
“The government is already in that direction and we are hoping we get that actualized as quickly as possible,” he added.
