Hostname: page-component-55f67697df-q9hcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-05-10T17:01:48.307Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Gilded Outside, Shoddy Within: The Human Rights Watch report on Chinese copper mining in Zambia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 May 2025

Barry Sautman  and
Yan Hairong
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

A November 2011 Human Rights Watch (HRW) report on labor abuses in mining firms in Zambia parented by state-owned enterprise (SOE) China Non-ferrous Metal Mining Co. (CNMC) has been a media sensation.

CNMC subsidiaries operate two copper mines and two copper processing plants in Zambia Non-Ferrous Company Africa (NFCA), CNMC-Luanshya Copper Mines (CLM), Chambishi Copper Smelter (CCS), and Sino Metals Leach Zambia (Sino Metals).

Type
Research Article
Information
Asia-Pacific Journal , Volume 9 , Issue 52 , December 2011 , e1
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2011

References

Notes

1 HRW, ‘You'll be Fired if you Refuse’: Labor Abuses in Zambia's Chinese State-owned Copper Mines, Nov. 3, 2011.

2 On bias in UK media coverage of Chinese activities in Africa, see Emma Mawdsley, “‘Fu Manchu versus Dr Livingstone in the Dark Continent? Representing China, Africa and the West in British Broadsheet Newspapers,” Political Geography 27:5 (2008): 509-529. We have made similar findings in a forthcoming paper that surveys two hundred articles published from 2005-2011in five leading US newspapers.

3 Ministerial Statement of Maxwell M.B. Mwale … on the Development of the Mining Sector in Zambia, March, 2011.

4 We detail the anti-Chinese campaigns of Sata and the racial hierarchy constructed by his deputy, the now Zambian Vice-President Guy Scott (Indians are worse than white and Chinese are worse than Indians) in our monograph in progress, Red Dragon, Red Metal: Chinese Investment in Zambia's Copper Industry.

5 For example, on how people in the US evaluate welfare measures, see Paul Kellestedt, The Mass Media and the Dynamics of American Racial Attitudes (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003).

6 “Chinese Firms not that Bad, says Miners' Union,” DM, Nov. 4, 2011. See also “Minister, Union Defend Chinese Labor Conditions,” Zambia Watchdog, Nov. 5, 2011 (“Government [Deputy Minister of Labor Rayford Mbulu] says not only Chinese Mining companies have been flouting labor laws but all employers should try and ensure their workers are properly looked after”), zambianwatchdog.

7 H.B. Miller, et al., “Identifying Antecedent Conditions Responsible for the High Rate of Mining Injuries in Zambia,” International Journal of Occupational Environmental Health 12:4 (2006): 329-339.

8 MUZ, “Statistics of Mine Accidents by the Mine/Division for the Past 11 Years”; Mine Safety Dep't, “Mining Industry Safety Record from the Year 2000 to August 19, 2011; ”November 9 Power Failure Left One Miner Dead,“ Zambia Watchdog, Nov. 20, 2011. There were also 46 dead in the 2005 BGRIMM dynamite plant explosion. NFCA owned a 40% interest in the plant, but did not manage it. MUZ does not count the BGRIMM fatalities as attributable to NFCA. We thus omit them from the totals for both all mining companies and NFCA.

9 ICEM, “Mine Safety and ILO Convention No. 176: a Continued Priority for the ICEM,” Apr. 24, 2011, link.

10 For fatalities in China's non-coal mining sector, see the State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS) website, “2010 nian fei mei kuangshan shigu fenxi” [An Analysis of Non-Coal Mining Accidents in year 2010“, March 9, 2011, link. and a telephone interview with SAWS, Beijing, Nov. 16, 2011, that indicated that non-ferrous death was 27% among the total for non-coal mining for 2010. Fatalities figures for China involve only reported fatalities, but many Chinese mining fatalities are unreported, so that the gap between Chinese and Zambian fatality rates are significantly larger than reported figures reveal.

11 See S.K. Puri, “Safety Management in Indian Coal Mines,” in Pradeep Chaturvedi (ed.), Challenges of Occupational Safety and Health (New Delhi, Concept Publishing Co., 2006): 161-168 (166).

12 See table “Mining Fatalities: All U.S. Mines Accident/Injury Classes” in “Briefing Book for the Niosh Mining Program” (section 1.4 “Research Needs”)(Atlanta: Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2005), link. The fatality ratio between surface and underground mining is calculated by us for the period of 1990-2004, using employment figures for 1992-2002.

13 MUZ, Statistics and Mine Safety Dep't, Mining Industry.

14 Interview, Wang Chunlai, Chambishi, Aug. 15, 2011.

15 Interview, Mooya Lumamba, Kitwe, Aug. 19, 2011.

16 Interview, Gao Xiang, Vice CEO, CLM, Luanshya, Aug. 17, 2011.

17 “For Whom the Windfalls: Winners and Losers in the Privatization of Zambia's Copper Mines”, Civil Society Trade Network of Zambia, 2008.

18 Austin Muneku, “South African Multi-Nationals in Zambia: the Case of Chibuluma Mines, Plc,” in Devan Pillay (ed.), South African MNCs' Labor and Social Performance (African Labor Research Network, 2005): 258-285.

19 Action for Southern Africa, et al., “Undermining Development? Copper Mining in Zambia,” Oct. 2007.

20 Counter Balance, “The Mopani Copper Mine, Zambia: How European Development Money has Fed a Mining Scandal”, Dec. 2010: 16-17.

21 Interview, Mr. Kalezi, Kitwe, Aug. 16, 2011.

22 We discuss past and present notions of Chinese cruelty and disregard for human life, including in Africa, in a paper in progress “Bashing the Chinese: Contextualizing Zambia's Collum Coal Mine Shooting.”

23 Interview, John Lungu, Kitwe, Aug. 15, 2011. In 2011 one US dollar was worth 4,800-5,000 kwacha.

24 “2010 Mineral Production (1st Half of Year)” and “2010 Mineral Production (2d Half of Year), photocopies provided by the authors by office of the Chief Mining Engineer, Lusaka, Aug. 19, 2011.

25 See David Creedy, et al., “Transforming China's Coal Mines: a Case History of the Shuangliu Mine,” Natural Resources Forum 30:1 (2006): 15-26.

26 Interview, Mundia Sikufele, President of NUMAW, Kitwe, Aug. 27, 2008; Interview, Luo Tao, CEO of CNMC, Beijing, Oct. 18, 2011.

27 Interview, Section Engineer Xu, Chambishi, Aug. 23, 2008.

28 Shang Fushan, et al., “Sustainable Development of the Chinese Copper Market,” (Winnipeg: IISD, 2010): 16; China Data Online (2011), “Copper Ores Mining & Dressing/Basic Condition”; “China Yearly Industrial Data,” All China Data Center, sourced from National Statistics Bureau, 2010 Mineral Production table; Wang Chunlai interview; Interview, Gao Xiang, Exec. Vice Gen. Manager, CNMC International Trade, Beijing, Oct. 21, 2011.

29 2010 Mineral Production.

30 Wang Chunlai interview. Wang's comparison of NFCA and KCM in terms of per worker copper production derives from “Zhongse Zanbiya bagong shijian”(CNMC Zambia's strike incidents), Xin shiji, Nov. 5, 2011.

31 Interview, Mubanga Gillan, Chambishi, Aug. 27, 2008.

32 NFCA CEO Wang Chunlai and unions interviewed in “Zhongse Zanbiya bagong shijian” (The Incident of Strike at NFCA in Zambia), Xin shi ji Nov. 7, 2011, magazine

33 Interview, Gao Xiang, Beijing, Oct. 20, 2011.

34 Wang Chunlai and Gao Xiang August 2011 interviews.

35 Rob Davies, “The Other Face of Glencore Mining that Investors Never See,” Daily Mail (UK), Nov. 21, 2011.

36 Interview, Charles Mukuka, Acting MUZ President, Kitwe, Aug. 15, 2011.

37 Siti interview. Zambia's minimum wage in 2011 was K419,000 (about US$85).

38 “Labor Ministry ‘War-Front’ Opens over Minimum Wages,” Times of Zambia, Oct. 1, 2011.

39 Davies, The Other Face.

40 Mukuka interview.

41 Matt Wells, “China in Zambia: Trouble Down in the Mines” Huff Post World, Nov. 21, 2011.

42 Undermining Development?: 14-15.

43 “China in Zambia: from Comrades to Capitalists?” World News Review, October, 2008.

44 Jean-Christophe Servant, “Mined Out in Zambia,” Le Monde Diplomatique, May 9, 2009.

45 Kevin van Niekerk, “Facing and Overcoming Challenges, Discover Zambia v. 5: 24-29.

46 See posts 12 and 25 to “FQM, Zambia's Largest Copper Producer, Happy with President Sata's Drive, Lusaka Times, Oct. 13, 2011.

47 Davies, The Other Face.

48 Mukuka interview.

49 Mukuka interview.

50 Crispin Matenga, “The Impact of the Global Financial and Economic Crisis on Job Losses and Conditions of Work in the Mining Sector in Zambia,” ILO, Lusaka, 2010; Charles Muchimba, “The Zambian Mining Industry: a Status Report Ten Years after Privatization,” Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Lusaka, 2010: 27.

51 “African Union to Tackle Human Rights Abuses of Mineworkers”, Coal Mountain, Oct. 25, 2010.

52 See, e.g., Ching Kwan Lee, “Raw Encounters: Chinese Managers, African Workers and the Politics of Casualization in Africa's Chinese Enclaves,” China Quarterly) 199 (2009): 647-699; Dan Haglund, “In it for the Long Term? Governance and Learning among Chinese Investors in Zambia's Copper Sector,” CQ 199 (2009): 627-646.

53 “Clinton Warns Africa of China's Economic Embrace,” Reuters, June 11, 2011; “David Cameron Warns Africans about ‘Chinese Invasion’ as they Pour Billions into Continent,” Daily Mail (UK), July 20, 2011.

54 “We are Here to Stay: China,” Daily Mail (Zambia), Nov. 10, 2011.

55 Action for Southern Africa, et al., “Undermining Development? Copper Mining in Zambia,” Oct. 2007.

56 Counter Balance, “The Mopani Copper Mine, Zambia: How European Development Money has Fed a Mining Scandal”, Dec. 2010: 16-17.

57 Cheryl Lynn Greenberg, Troubling the Waters: Black-Jewish Relations in the American Century (Princeton University Press, 2010):223.