"Chinese Mining Firm Downplays Toxic Waste Spill as Residents Reel From Impacts" Inside Climate News, 22 September 2025

In a statement filed Thursday with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, China Nonferrous Mining Corp. said the February collapse of its waste pit, known as a tailings dam, at a copper mine in Zambia resulted in only “partial tailings leakage.”

A new lawsuit filed on behalf of residents alleges the company has [...] prevent them from reporting their experiences and getting help. [...].

[China Nonferrous Mining Corp.'s] statement also blamed the waste pit’s collapse on “theft and damage” to the pit’s liner and heavy rain, though [...] a professional regulatory body, alleged the tailings dam had operational and design flaws. [...].

A lawsuit filed on behalf of affected residents in September accuses Sino-Metals of blocking lawyers and advocates from visiting impacted people and of causing extensive personal injuries, financial loss and property damage.

“Families and children have continued to live in the same area” with heavy metal contamination exceeding safe levels [...] the complaint said.

The lawsuit seeks immediate payment of $200 million as an emergency fund and $80 billion for a government-managed reparation and remediation fund.

China Nonferrous Mining [...] called the lawsuit “unfounded” [...].

A second group of plaintiffs, in a notice of intent to sue, demanded that Sino-Metals pay $220 million and establish a $10 billion long-term fund. [...].

The filed lawsuit alleges that since late July, some operations to physically remove waste from impacted areas “are being conducted without any protective measures, such as masks,” [...].

Residents, the complaint said, are already “experiencing significant health issues.” Those include respiratory problems, stomach pain, diarrhea, rashes, eye irritation and, the lawsuit added, “even coughing blood.”

In September, Sino-Metals began making interim compensation [...], according to the pending lawsuit, which called the payments “grossly inadequate.”

[...] while the government identified 449 farmers as “affected,” the true number of impacted Zambians is far higher.

Sino-Metals [...] “has threatened and warned the community that their phones have been tapped [...] and that if they make or receive calls, they will face severe, undisclosed consequences.”

The company has also warned residents that it “flies drones above the community, so it knows who visits who and who visits them,” the complaint alleged.