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KALUMBILA Minerals Limited (KML), a subsidiary of First Quantum Minerals (FQM), is no stranger to controversy concerning the new mines being set up in Solwezi.
KML's K10 billion Trident Project encompassing three mines namely, Sentinel, Enterprise and Intrepid, raised dust which is yet to settle among concerned parties.
The Sentinel Project worth US$2 billion currently under construction will be dealing in low-grade copper while the Enterprise will focus on nickel. The minerals Intrepid Mine will concentrate on are yet to be known.
The controversy stems from the displacement the Trident Project will cause in its operational area, 150 kilometres west of Solwezi, off the T5 Road to Mwinilunga.
The Trident Project has displaced 570 families representing 1,400 farmers with crops on 787 hectares of traditional land, 105 livestock farmers, 100 bee keepers, more than 200 graves, 18 water sources, seven churches, one school, three sports fields and one market.
The construction of Chisola Dam is arguably what sparked the worst controversy in the Trident Project.
It is the land around the Chisola River where the 105 livestock farmers used to take their cattle for grazing.
However, that will not be the case owing to the construction of the dam, hence the outcry.
The purpose of damming the Chisola River is to divert it as it flows through the Enterprise mine deposit as well as use huge quantities of water to the Sentinel processing plant using a pipeline that will be installed.
Musangejhi River is another water source which has been affected by the Trident Project and thus has to be dammed because Musangejhi Dam is the main diversion dam for Sentinel Mine.
KML has since restocked Musangejhi Dam with 7,000 tilapia fingerlings for the benefit of the Kankonjhi community which has been affected by the project.
The controversial Chisola Dam will also be restocked with fish.
In May this year, the Zambia Environmental Management Agency (ZEMA)'s protection order halted the construction of Chisola Dam.
The move to block the construction of the dam prompted FQM in June to announce that it would lay off 500 workers as the company could not sustain the high workforce while it waited for ZEMA to lift the protection order.
A month earlier, FQM government relations manager John Gladston announced...