By: Creamer media

The venture, working with mining companies, has secured copper concentrates to sell, Mulumba Lwatula, head of mining and energy investments at Zambia’s Industrial Development Corp., said by phone Friday.

The government on June 28 suspended a 10% duty on 255 357 metric tons of concentrates exported via the IDC, according to regulations issued the day before. The waiver ends Oct. 1, the regulations show.

Zambia’s partnership with Mercuria is part of a broader continental drive to derive more benefits from its mineral wealth and retain a greater share of the proceeds.

The southern African nation has accused exporters of using “creative accounting” to shift profits offshore. At the same time, smelters are clamoring for concentrates globally, with expansions in recent years helping to drive spot market terms to their lowest levels ever. That makes for a potentially lucrative trade for the IDC and Mercuria.

Concentrates from the local unit of Abu Dhabi-based International Resources Holding made up the biggest part of the waiver, at 100 000 tons, First Quantum Minerals’s operations accounted for 50 357 tons and Vedanta Resources’s local mines 55 000 tons, the regulation showed.

Mercuria declined to comment. The company’s partnership with IDC unit Industrial Resources is a 50:50 venture, Lwatula said.