In a twist of events, all International Contractors at Mopani Copper Mines have been given one month notice to demobilize and leave the mine plants. Redpath, Zinpro, Group R, Group 5, Murray and Roberts are some of the South African owned companies that were undertaking capital projects. Others are Redrilza, Opermin, Tauro Mining, Reliant Mining which are Peruvian owned Companies.

These companies combined employs thousands of local workers.

The contractors were earlier told that they should plan for a care and maintenance of underground equipment.

A source indicated that by implication, Mopani has no plans of recalling or maintaining them after their next review in June.

This led to one of the affected the affected companies to inform its workers that they will be laid off and be paid severance packages once it’s calculated. A check on other international contractors revealed the same fate.

Mopani Copper Mines has declared a Force Majeura citing the effects of Covid 19 and the drop of copper prices which declaration was rejected by the Zambian government and sternly warned Mopani that they will face the full force of the law should they go ahead and place the mine on care and maintenance.