THE Kitwe High Court has granted a group of Copperbelt small-scale miners, commonly known as jerabos, an interlocutory injunction restraining Nkana Alloy and Smelting Company and Tianjin Maolin Technology Company from preventing them from accessing the copper slug dumpsite, Black Mountain, in Kitwe.
Kitwe High Court judge Isaac Kamwendo granted the order recently upon hearing arguments from the small-scale miners through their lawyer and after reading an affidavit in support of the application sworn by Albert Kapalaka.
This is in a case in which the small-scale miners, led by Godfrey Kangwa, popularly known as Shimumbi, and Richard Chileshe, popularly known as Chile One, sued the Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines, Nkana Alloy and Smelting Company Limited, Chambeshi Metals Plc and Tianjin Maolin Technology Company Limited as first, second, third and fourth respondents, respectively, over mining interests at the Black Mountain.
Justice Kamwendo ordered the respondents by themselves, their workers or their agents not to interfere in any way with the plaintiff’s interest by themselves or their workers from accessing the Black Mountain.
The court also restrained Nkana Alloy and Tianjin Technology from claiming authority over the mountain and further restrained them from interfering with the plaintiff’s quiet enjoyment of the mountain until final determination of the matter by the court.