Zambia is conducting an audit of mining companies to determine their earnings and will punish companies found cheating over declaration of revenues, Finance Minister Situmbeko Musokotwane said on Saturday. Musokotwane said the southern African country, the continent's largest copper producer, was also on course to produce 700,000 tonnes of copper this year following a rebound in metals output at the mines and a rally in global prices.
Copper output at 675,000 tonnes last year was far above expectations of a forecast 500,000 tonnes. Musokotwane said the audit had been ordered following claims by some Zambians, including the opposition parties and mining analysts, that the country was not reaping enough benefit from its key mining industry because of mis-reporting of revenues by some foreign owned mining companies.
Major opposition parties and civic groups have even asked for re-introduction of a 25 percent windfall tax the government scrapped this year, after an outcry from the mining companies. "We have asked for a special audit to be done on the mining sector and if we find someone cheating, we will deal with that," Musokotwane told Reuters in a telephone interview from Lusaka.