Konkola Copper Mines (KCM): Environmental Management Plan (May 2001)

People living on Zambia’s Copperbelt are confronted with a barrage of toxic chemicals and other pollutants all of which undermines their right to health and damages their livelihoods. But the development agreements between the Government of Zambia (GRZ) and the new owners of Zambia’s recently privatised copper mines, like the UK-registered Anglo American Corporation give a green light to pollution. Anglo American, which has so far failed to be included in the FTSE4Good Index (which lists socially and environmentally responsible companies), has to do much more to prove that it is serious about corporate social responsibility. Oxfam has various concerns about KCM’s environmental and social plans and is calling on the company’s shareholders – the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC) – to urgently address these issues, preferably before KCM’s next Board meeting at the end of February 2002.

During negotiations, the large mining companies were able to dictate their own terms and exact maximum advantage for themselves and their shareholders. The development agreements (legal contracts), which apportion responsibility for meeting social and environmental liabilities, have not been made public. But it is clear that responsibility for dealing with the majority of the outstanding social and environmental problems rests with the Government of Zambia (GRZ) and the remnants of the state-owned mining conglomerate, ZCCM-Investment Holdings plc (ZCCM-IH). In view of the scale of the problem, without support from the World Bank, other donors, and the mining companies, ZCCM-IH, which holds more liabilities than assets, cannot even begin to tackle some of the most pressing environmental hazards.

All the new investors have to produce Environmental Management Plans (EMPs) for the mines. The EMP for Anglo American’s subsidiary, Konkola Copper Mines (KCM), in which both the UK’s Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC) and the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) have equity shares, is the first to appear. KCM is failing to comply - in a number of crucial respects - with the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. These advise companies ‘to raise the level of environmental performance in all parts of their operations even where this may not be formally required’.ⁱ Companies are expected ‘to take due account of the need to protect the environment, public health and safety, and generally to conduct their activities in a manner contributing to the wider goal of sustainable development’.ⁱⁱ

• Screen the exposed population and workforce for pulmonary illnesses such as Pneumoconiosis.

4. Safety is of paramount concern to local people especially in view of the series of fatal accidents that have occurred at the Nchanga Open Pit Mine over the past few months. Public disclosure of KCM’s Health and Safety Report is essential to restore public confidence in the management of the mine.

5. People, many of them ex-miners and their families, who have been forced by poverty to cultivate unused land within ex ZCCM mine surface boundaries – including in hazardous areas - should be incorporated into KCM’s Resettlement Action Plan and not simply evicted.

6. In view of the great poverty in towns like Kitwe, Chingola and Chililabombwe, KCM should consider providing much greater support to those communities living in the vicinity of the mines who lack the most basic amenities.