{"id":1164107,"date":"2020-02-06T11:15:46","date_gmt":"2020-02-06T17:15:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/?p=1013090"},"modified":"2020-02-06T11:15:46","modified_gmt":"2020-02-06T17:15:46","slug":"zambia-vedanta-row-escalates-with-mining-minister-calling-company-criminal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1164107","title":{"rendered":"Zambia-Vedanta row escalates with mining minister calling company \u201ccriminal\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Zambia has escalated its attacks on miner Vedanta, owned by<br \/>\nIndian mining magnate Anil Agarwal, saying the company has been involved in<br \/>\ncriminal activities, including underpaying taxes and breaking investment<br \/>\npromises.<\/p>\n<div class='d-flex justify-content-center d-xs-block d-sm-block d-md-none'>\n<div id='div-gpt-ad-1561499308230-0'><script>googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1561499308230-0');});<\/script><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>&#8220;Zambia is a victim and it needs support,&#8221; mining minister, Richard Musukwa <a href=\"https:\/\/www.iol.co.za\/business-report\/economy\/mining-minister-calls-on-investors-to-employ-zambias-resources-42194170\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"told delegates at African Mining Indaba (opens in a new tab)\">told delegates at African Mining Indaba<\/a>, the continent\u2019s biggest gathering of professionals from the resource extraction sector. &#8220;We deserve African and international support to make sure Vedanta pays the price.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He was referring to a bitter row with the mining company<br \/>\nthat broke out in May 2019, when the African nation\u2019s government mining<br \/>\nvehicle, ZCCM, sought the liquidation of Vedanta\u2019s Konkola Copper Mines (KCM).<\/p>\n<p>At the time, Zambia accused KCM \u2014 the country\u2019s largest copper operation \u2014 of breaching the terms of its licence and owing money\u00a0in unpaid taxes, charges the company has denied and is fighting <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/web\/vedanta-seeks-arbitration-zambian-copper-mine-dispute\/\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">through\u00a0international arbitration<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Soon after seizing control of the mine, which has a productive capacity of about 100,000 tonnes of copper, Zambia said it had interested buyers including China Nonferrous Metals Co. and Eurasian Resources Group. But it seems like the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/web\/zambias-president-lungu-meets-with-vedanta-over-disputed-copper-mine\/\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">ongoing dispute between Vedanta and the country<\/a> has put off bidders.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/web\/nearly-2000-zambian-villagers-can-sue-vedanta-england-supreme-court\/\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">landmark suit against Vedanta<\/a> involving almost 1,900 Zambian villagers\u00a0got underway this week. The group, who is suing the miner for environmental damage allegedly caused by KCM, will have to prove that the company can be held responsible for the actions of its Zambian subsidiary.<\/p>\n<p>They will also have to bring KMC to the proceedings, which<br \/>\ncould be difficult as, at least provisionally, the company is not connected to<br \/>\nVedanta.<\/p>\n<p>A ruling favouring the claimants would be a landmark decision<br \/>\nthat would set a precedence likely to have consequences beyond the UK.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mining minister, Richard Musukwa, said Zambia needed African and international support to &#8220;make Vedanta pay&#8221;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[369,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1164107"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1164107"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1164107\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1164176,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1164107\/revisions\/1164176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1164107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1164107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1164107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}