By: Creamer media

“No doubt there was some rapid foot movement behind the scenes. One wonders what happened to the ‘must be hosted in Zambia’ criteria,” was a note put out by a mining company, amid comments made on LinkedIn including, “very inconveniencing”.

In February, a report in Zambia Mine Safety stated that the Central African country’s Ministry of Mines and Minerals Development was pleased to announce the official launch of the Zambia Integrated Mining Information System, or ZIMIS, which was described as representing a new era of digital innovation in mining licence management, offering stakeholders a seamless and user-friendly platform for all mining-related transactions.

The motivation was that data privacy laws required the in-country hosting of the mining cadastre and it was stated that in preparation for this transition, the then cadastre system, the Trimble Landfolio System – the Spatial Dimension system – would be closed.

A screenshot of Spatial Dimension’s notice stated: “After almost two decades of supporting the Zambian mining cadastre, Spatial Dimension no longer has the contractual ability to provide access to the service.”

A subsequent notice was then put out by Spatial Dimension to explain that “This system is not available at the present time. Please contact the Ministry of Mines and Mineral Development for more information.”

A mining company’s comment was that ZIMIS had been a failure: “Some services are available at https://mmmdui.gsb.gov.zm/services but there’s no cadastre system.” The link given is that of ZamServices Government e-Services Directory, but it appeared to be very iffy.

“There is no cadastre portal and there is no information from the Ministry or the cadastre department as to what is happening or what the plan is,” the mining company added to Mining Weekly.

Mining Weekly has not been able to access any public comment by the Ministry and also still unanswered are these questions put to Spatial Dimension:

• Has the Ministry in Zambia reactivated the Spatial Dimension cadastre with your approval?
• Does the stipulation that the cadastre be locally hosted in-country no longer apply? 

Meanwhile, a report in First Mining DRC-Zambia stated: “ZIMIS was intended to replace Zambia’s legacy cadastre and accelerate the issuance of mining rights, supporting the nation’s ambition to hit 3.1-million tonnes of annual copper production by 2031. However, within weeks of launch, the Ministry issued a March 17 press release confirming that ZIMIS had suffered technical challenges.” A note sent to Mining Weekly suggested that the contract won to develop eGov solutions in Zambia should be thoroughly investigated beyond the technical and focus should also be placed on the financial inducement aspects. 

On March 17, the Ministry encouraged the public to provide feedback on any challenges encountered while accessing ZIMIS services. A note stated that court cases to stop the implementation of ZIMIS are under way.