By MAIMBOLWA MULIKELELA  –

ZAMBIA’s first commercial iron ore mine, Sanje Hill will start mining operations on July 7, 2015 with committed investment of US$10 million.
The mine is being developed by Universal Mining and Chemical Industries Limited (UMCIL), which is part of the Trade Kings Group of Companies.
Sanje Hill located in Nampundwe area has a capacity of 5.4 million tonnes and estimated to yield tangible iron ore deposits over the next four to five years.
UMCIL General Manager – Group Operations Roger Staley said the committed investment at the Sanje Hill was around $10 million and would invest additional $30 million to set up Direct Reduced Iron processing plant at Kafue.
Mr Staley explained that the iron ore mined from Sanje Hills will be used as raw materials to produce steel at Kafue Steel unlike the current state where scrap metal was feed into the manufacturing of steel.
“Iron ore has been known since 1950 and when we bring Sanje Hill iron ore mine into production in the next seven months, it will become Zambia’s first commercial iron ore mine,” he said.
Mr Staley said the group had invested $200 million to establish an integrated steel mill at Kafue and Sanje Hill iron ore mine.
He said this when Mines, Energy and Water Development Minister Christopher Yaluma toured UMCIL in Kafue.
Mr Staley said both projects were funded by sales of locally produced products such as boom, maheu, amazon pops, and swiss bake cookies and among other products.
About 1,200 jobs have been created at Kafue steel and at the mine site with 10,000 other beneficiaries.
He said the beneficiation plant which would be used to process the ore was under construction and would be completed in the next seven months.
“We are currently building roads, buildings and the management team have relocated to site and we are preparing for our drilling for the first blast in progress,” he said.
Mr Staley said the majority of the relocation of the local people was complete. He said about 160 locals were affected by the establishment of  the mine.
The project is to be implemented on a backward integration in phases starting first with a steel mill to process iron and steel scraps into various rolled products to include round bars, angles, channels and  strip.
The initial plant capacity will be 100,000 tonnes per year. In the  second phase, a sponge iron plant which is a direct reduction plant will be added to the steel plant to convert iron oxide ore into sponge  iron to make up for the scrap deficit.
This entails development of an iron oxide ore plant at Sanje Hill hematite deposit and the construction of a road from the mine to the steel mill.
This addition of the sponge iron plant will result in an increased capacity of 200,000 tonnes per year of iron and steel products.
And Mr Yaluma said his Government was committed to supporting locally produced products as part of the industrialisation strategy.
“As the Government we must protect our products which are produced within Zambia so that we can be proud to use our local product in most of our projects but the statistics am getting is that more foreign steel was landing into our country,” he said.
The minister said it was important to protect the $200 million investment and 1,200 jobs that have been created by ensuring that Zambian products are supported.
“UMCIL is doing the right thing and they have embarked on the  beneficiation programmes and probably they are the first company to  have the iron ore plant in the country which is expected to come on  stream in the next seven months,” Mr Yaluma said.