Zambia will not issue licences for mining uranium until it gets guidelines from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) despite the discovery of huge uranium deposits, the mining minister said on Wednesday.
"Nobody has been given a licence to mine uranium because we are looking at issues of storage and marketing. We are also waiting for guidelines from the International Atomic Energy (Agency)," Mines and Minerals Development Minister Kalombo Mwansa told journalists.
Officials and exploration firms have reported the discovery of major uranium deposits in in the mineral-rich southern African country in recent months.
Mwansa said firms had been given licences to explore uranium and that mining licences would only be awarded once guidelines were provided from the IAEA, the U.N. nuclear watchdog.
"The government is cautious because it does not want to raise controversy with the world's big nations on the mining of uranium and its subsequent sale," a senior official in the mines ministry said.
Mwansa said significant uranium deposits have been found around Lake Kariba in the southern province and at the Lumwana copper mine in northwestern province.
He told a mining conference in Lusaka that the state Geological Survey Department had preliminary data showing more uranium deposits in eastern Zambia and that exploration would be undertaken to determine the amount of the minerals.
The minister also said Zambian authorities had extended incentives awarded to copper and cobalt mines to other mining firms to explore and mine different base metals.
"The government has decided to extend all the tax incentives that apply to mining of copper and cobalt ...to all other base metals," Mwansa said.
Mwansa said firms mining base metals in Zambia would no longer be required to pay duty on imported mining equipment which is normally charged at 25 percent, and that they would not be compelled to pay 17.5 percent value added tax for a period of five years for pre-production expenditure.
The firms also will be exempted from paying tax on dividends to shareholders and tax on interest payments to financial lending institutions which provide financing to the mining firms.
