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April 2015
MODERN MINING
33
feature
COUNTRY FOCUS –
ZAMBIA
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
A Bell Equipment water bowser washes down the exposed ore – which assists the task of
hand mining.
A sample of ore from the reaction zone.
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.
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