“You'll Be Fired if You Refuse” - Human Rights Watch

for CNMC in 2003—13 years after the Chambishi mine was last in active production. 37 In
2006, CNMC opened Sino Metal Leach Zambia (known as Sino Metals) near the NFCA
underground mine to provide lower-level processing into exportable copper cathode
through its tailings leach plant and Solvent Extraction/Electrowinning (SX/EW) plant. 38
The following year, Zambia became the first African site for China’s special economic
zones, or SEZs, announced originally at the 2006 Forum on China–Africa Cooperation. 39
Known in Zambia as the Zambia-China Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone (ZCCZ), SEZs
are designed to provide “a combination of world-class infrastructure, expedited customs
and administrative procedures, and (usually) fiscal incentives that overcome barriers to
investment in the wider economy.” 40 The zone was placed in Chambishi, with the goal to
spur additional investment in the copper industry and related production.
CNMC began construction on the Chambishi Copper Smelter (CCS) soon thereafter, and the
plant opened in early 2009. In January of that year, the investor at Luanshya Copper Mine
closed its operations and announced the mine was for sale; CNMC purchased it several
months later. The mine reopened in December 2009 after hundreds of millions of dollars in
investment; more than 2,000 miners are employed at China Luanshya Mine (CLM). 41
The four copper mining companies owned by the parastatal CNMC are:
• NFCA, an underground mine and surface-level plant in the town of Chambishi; 42
• CLM, an underground mine, processing facility, and open-cast mines in Luanshya;
• CCS, a copper smelting plant in Chambishi; and
• Sino Metals, a copper processing plant in Chambishi.
37 Xinhua, “CNMC kicks off production at copper mine in Zambia,” November 28, 2010. NFCA spent around $132 million to
restore the mine and the concentrator, with more than 2,000 jobs created by the start of production. Frasier and Lungu, For
Whom the Windfalls, p. 48.
38 For a summary of copper production from mine to export, see Copper.org, Copper Production from Ore to Finished Product,
http://www.copper.org/education/production.html (accessed September 28, 2011); International Copper Study Group,
Definitions, http://www.icsg.org/index.php?option=com_content&task =view&id=23&Itemid=64 (accessed September 28, 2011).
39 Haglund, “In It for the Long Term?,” p. 634.
40 Deborah Brautigam, Thomas Farole, and Tang Xiaoyang, “China’s Investment in African Special Economic Zones:
Prospects, Challenges, and Opportunities,” Economic Premise (the World Bank), March 2010, p. 2.
41 Kelvin Kachingwe, “Controversial Chinese Firm Given Another Copper Mine,” Inter Press Service, June 2, 2009,
http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=47065; “Chinese to pump $150m into Luanshya Copper Mine rehab,”
Times of Zambia, December 10, 2009.
42 As of early 2011, underground mining at NFCA has been taken over in name by JCHX, which is also owned by China Non-
Ferrous Metals Mining Corporation. The management from NFCA Underground Mining remained intact when transferred to
JCHX, as did the general workforce. The only change, on its face, is the CNMC subsidiary’s name. Miners protested the
change, as it happened without any notice. “12 protesting miners arrested,” Lusaka Times, January 19, 2011. Throughout this
report, Human Rights Watch will refer to the company as NFCA, rather than JCHX, since that is what the miners themselves,
union officials, government officials, and business representatives all still call the company.
21 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | NOVEMBER 2011