Mapping Our Minerals
By Dickson Jere

You may, those on the Copperbelt Province, have seen a low flying small aircraft hovering around your areas. It is called a Pilatus PC-6 fixed wing aircraft, from South Africa, which was capturing mineral data using new resolution geophysics. The airborne geophysical survey covered over 80,000 Km and obtained critical data that will be used to stimulate mineral exploration on the Copperbelt.

This kind of mapping was last done in 1970s during the UNIP era. At that time, they used 1-5Km line spacing and flight height of 150 metres to 300 metres, which experts say is now outdated.

“The country needed a new high-resolution magnetic data that would include airborne radiometric and gravity measurements,” says Anthony Mukutuma, a mining expert, who heads the First Quantum Minerals (FQM) in Zambia.

The current survey used the 200 line spacing and 50 metres flight height, which is the latest technology with high resolution data.

Our own Geological and Cadastral Departments has been in a mess with data and manly relies on old physical maps that are not backed by latest surveys.

With Zambia working on stimulating copper production to 3 million tonnes per year, reliable geophysical data is crucial for exploration and mining.

You see, this survey should have been done a lot time ago but funding to this sector has been sketchy even though copper accounts for more than half of our GDP.

And so, FQM entered the ring. As part of its commitment to Zambia, the Australian firm decided to fund the latest survey on the Copperbelt to the tune of USD1.5 million. FQM and government signed an MOU for this survey in September 2023 and the work has now been done and completed.

The small aircraft has since left Zambia after a successful mission and the data has been handed over to the President of Zambia.

“It is a serious indictment on us as a country, as a people. Because you cannot exploit or manage resources you do not know properly…” the President said when he received the full Report from FQM boss Tristan Pascal.

The data, according to FQM, will be shared to the mineral rights holders on the Copperbelt Province, on request. Government will also keep the data and provide it to any investor at a fee.