By Michael Kaluba
Mines and Mineral Development Minister Paul Kabuswe says the impending redundancies at First Quantum Minerals-FQM- are not as bad as initially reported, with the same investor set to assimilate over 1000 employees at its soon-to-be operational Nickel Mine.
FQM recently revealed plans to lay off a portion of its workforce beginning next month after deciding to streamline its business operations, slightly more than a year after its board authorized plans for a $1.25 billion expansion of the company's Kansanshi Copper Mine in Zambia.
But Mr. Kabuswe says that the way the initial reports portrayed the matter is not the correct position, arguing that FQM is just reorganizing and merging all of its operations into one unit.
The Minister explains that redundancies will occur as a result of duplications on some positions and to those deemed excess once the re-organization is complete.
He says that the government is currently engaging Kansanshi to ensure that the impact of the job losses is minimal and mitigated while noting that FQM has an impending Nickel Mine that may absorb some of the employees who will be declared redundant within 1000 to be employed.
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