Zambia President orders case against First Quantum to be dropped

JOHANNESBURG – Zambian President Edgar Lungu has instructed that the fraud case the State investment company brought against the country’s biggest copper producer and some of its directors be dropped, his spokesman said. Arbitration over the matter will continue in London.

First Quantum Minerals, based in Vancouver, had written to Zambia’s attorney general expressing fears that directors named in the case could be arrested if they enter Zambia, where it produced more than 70% of its copper last year, and asked him to intervene. ZCCM Investments Holdings, which has a 20% stake in First Quantum’s flagship Kansanshi mine, also started arbitration proceedings against the company in London last year.

“The instruction is firstly to reach an amicable settlement,” Amos Chanda, Lungu’s spokesman, said by phone late on Tuesday. “The settlement presupposes that the arbitration case in London will continue but these other actions that have been started here in Lusaka, they have to stop.”

Lungu mandated his Finance Minister Felix Mutati to oversee the dispute between First Quantum and ZCCM-IH a month ago, Chanda said.

“We foresee a swift settlement of this matter,” he said. The letter Matt Pascall, First Quantum’s operations director, wrote to the attorney general, on April 21, was “totally unnecessary,” he said.