ZAMBIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Harriet Mdala, Natasha Lungu, Samuel Muleya and Chanda Musonda-Chiluba, MAY and Company
The National Green Growth Strategy 2024- 2030 has been formulated to promote devel - opment pathways that lead to Zambia’s transition to a low-carbon, resource efficient, resilient and socially inclusive economy by 2030. • The Zambia UN Sustainable Development Co-operation Framework (UNSDCF) pre - sents the collective offer of the UN system to strengthen Zambia’s progress towards the SDGs and the implementation of its interna - tional legal obligations. 3.4 Energy-Transition Minerals Zambia does not have legislative initiatives related to energy-transition minerals. However, Section 4(2)(l) of the Climate Change Act places responsibility for overseeing the revision and updating of the NDCs on the Department of Green Economy and Climate Change. Furthermore, Zambia signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on a partnership on sus - tainable raw materials value chains with the EU represented by the European Commission on 26 October 2023. The MoU asserts that securing the supply of strategic and critical raw materials (CRMs) in a sustainable manner is an essential prerequisite for ensuring the green transition. The availability of strategic and CRMs, such as copper, lithium, cobalt, manganese and natural graphite for batteries, or rare earth elements for permanent magnets for wind turbines, electric motors or computer data storage devices, rep - resents an enabling factor for decarbonising energy production, connectivity, and mobility, while promoting green and digital economic transformation. It also provides for increased extraction and transformation of strategic and CRMs, as well as the development of related value chains, coupled with strong commitments
to ESG standards, notably concerning transpar - ency, traceability and the contribution to peace and stability in the region. Another initiative is Zambia’s critical minerals strategy which was launched to harness Zam - bia’s critical mineral resources. The strategy aims to balance geopolitical interests with local impacts, ensuring that the benefits of mineral exploitation reach underserved communities. Additionally, the government has set an objec - tive to achieve the production of three million metric tonnes of copper by 2032 amongst other objectives in the extractive/mining industry. 4. Taxation of Mining and Exploration 4.1 Mining and Exploration Duties, Royalties and Taxes The Mines Act requires holders of mining rights and licences to pay mineral royalty tax (MRT) as consideration for the extraction of minerals from Zambia. Classification of Minerals The Mines Act categorises minerals into five groups, with each being subject to distinct MRT rates. These are: • base metals: non-precious metals, such as copper, iron, cobalt, and zinc; • energy minerals: resources like coal and ura - nium, used for energy generation; • gemstones: non-metallic minerals used in jewellery, such as emeralds, rubies, and amethysts; • industrial minerals: minerals used in raw or processed forms, such as limestone, clay, and gypsum; and
523 CHAMBERS.COM
Powered by FlippingBook