The Zambia Chamber of Mines has appointed Goodwell Mateyo as its new president.

He succeeds Nathan Chishimba, who is retiring after two consecutive terms. Seasoned industry veteran Nicolas Bowen will serve as VP.

Mateyo takes over the policy lobby group at a time when the mining industry is facing an imminent change in its fiscal regime, as outlined in the 2019 National Budget, announced by the Finance Minister, the chamber said in a statement issued on Tuesday.

Mateyo also disclosed that members of the chamber were reviewing their operations and might have to consider scaling back substantially while reducing capital expenditure by over $500-million over the next three years.

He added that this was likely to result in about 7 000 direct jobs, and more than 14 000 indirect jobs, coming under threat.

“While feedback on our representations to the Ministry of Finance is awaited, the membership remain hopeful of averting such an outcome and are strongly committed to robust engagement above and beyond the process outlined by the Minister in which the reconstitution of the Tax Policy Review Committee was announced,” Mateyo said.source: Mining.com