‘Zambia cancels plans to build open-pit Kangaluwi copper mine in a national park’ 16 January 2020

The Zambian government has announced that construction of the open-pit Kangaluwi copper mine in Lower Zambezi National Park won't proceed, following strong backlash against the project's prior approval…Although artisanal and small-scale mining has previously occurred in protected areas in Zambia, this could have been the first project involving large scale extraction, specifically an open-pit copper mine, by a foreign-owned company inside a national park.

Tourism and Arts Minister Ronald Chitotela announced the project won’t go forth because a report that was submitted by the environmental regulator has expired. “If this mining firm wants to go ahead with its project, we can advise them to submit a fresh report which will have to be scrutinised and approved by the government,” he explained in an interview.

…In addition, local stakeholders, communities and international experts had raised questions about the viability of the project proposal and the technical quality and transparency of the information being shared by the Australia-listed Mwembeshi Resource Company seeking to develop the mine.