By CHATULA KANGALI – THE Emeralds and Semi-Precious Stones Miners Association of Zambia (ESMAZ) has said small-scale miners need a minimum capital investment of US$5 million for operations. ESMAZ president Richard Mandona said in an interview that small-scale emerald miners were unable to mine emeralds and other precious stones in the country due to lack of machinery and funding. “For us to have successful mining operations, we need a capital investment of $5 million for equipment and machines for mining. “We are currently not very much involved in mining because we have no machines and funding,” he said. Mr Mandona called on the Government to carry out exploration of emeralds and other precious stones. “We hope to see this industry, which is slowly, dying get revitalised. We want to have a bankable document for mineral investment. “There are no proper mineral explorations that are taking place; we want areas where our members can start mining,” he said. Mr Mandona said ESMAZ membership was slowly declining because of lack of funding, mineral exploration and machinery.
