Chinese companies are targeted by Africans for sky-high 80 billion yuan claims
This article is authorized to be reproduced from "Salt Finance"
ID：nfc-yancaijing
The Author:Editor: Jiang Jiang
New Media Editor: Orb Vision:Gu Xiang
Recently, a sky-high claim lawsuit of US $80 billion has brought several red brown mines as far away as Zambia back to the attention of the domestic public.
This is one of the largest environmental lawsuits in Zambia’s history.
On September 15, more than 100 residents of the Humbihi mining area in Zambia officially filed a collective lawsuit against two companies involved in the case, Zambia's Sino Metals Leach Zambia and NFC Africa Mining, a subsidiary of China Color Mining Limited (hereinafter referred to as "China Color Mining").
The residents demanded that China’s colour mining establish an environmental repair custody account and deposit $80 billion, managed by the Zambia government, for environmental repair and full compensation, as well as an additional $200 million as emergency relief and health/environmental assessment fund.
What is the concept of $80 billion?
First of all,Zambia's annual GDP is about US$26 billion. In other words, this compensation amount is equivalent to Zambia's GDP for three years.
GDP of Zambia
Secondly, the highest compensation record in global mining history is only US$23 billion (compensation for the dam failure of the Samaco Mine Dam in Brazil).
It can be said that Zambia's claim for compensation from Chinese companies this time surprised countless people.
On September 18th, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lin Jian hosted a regular press conference. A reporter asked this question. More than 200 residents in northern Zambia filed environmental lawsuits against two Chinese companies, involving an amount of US $80 billion. What is China's comment on this? Lin Jian said that it is understood that after the accident, the relevant enterprises actively took responsibility, actively cooperated with the Zambian government to carry out the disposal, and compensated the damaged people. The related work achieved remarkable results.
What does a Chinese company experience in Africa?
What's going on?
Leaving the subsequent questions and troubles of the outside world, let us first look at the whole incident.
Tailings dam, generally speaking, is a common large-scale special dam in the mining industry, which is used to store the mud waste produced after ore beneficiation or smelting.
On the 18th of February, due to the theft of the penetration, and the influence of heavy rains, a tail dam in the Humbi's copper mine appeared, and millions of tons of toxic waste flowed into the local Kafue river system. This is a main river in Zambia called the "River of Life" and is the main water source for about 60 percent of the population of Zambia.
On September 18, China Color Mining Group Co., Ltd. issued an announcement to clarify and explain the incident with the Zambia-owned Zambia Humbi-Hi Moisture Co., Ltd.
At 3: 30 a.m. the next day, within 24 hours of the collapse accident, the gap between the collapse and leakage had been blocked.
Chinese enterprises have simultaneously contacted the Zambia government to deploy resources, take risks, and begin to restore water quality, as well as compensation to downstream farmers affected by the disaster.
By August 7, the Zambia government announced in a press conference and live video broadcast that the polluted water’s pH level had returned to normal, that the content of heavy metals was falling, and that the water supply had been fully restored by February 24 and that “no major disease caused by pollution was found, and no one died from pollution.”
Later, on September 10, the Vice President of Zambia, who went to the scene of the accident for inspection and investigation, affirmed the timely incident handling method and environmental governance results of Chambishi Wet Method.
It is not difficult to see that, despite the relevant information notification and clarification, the public opinion in the encounter of this collective lawsuit was publicly fermented after the disaster.But as the enterprise involved, China's colour mining industry responded to the accident and handled it in a timely and fast manner.
Chambishi Hydrometallurgy Ltd
But in contrast,It is said that more than 100 local people (it is known that only 11 people are actually authorized) filed a lawsuit with the High Court of Lusaka, Zambia, accusing the accident of posing a threat to community health, and asking two copper mine owners to deposit 80 billion dollars into an account managed by the Zambian government as a guarantee including "environmental restoration" and "comprehensive compensation". Moreover, an emergency fund of 20 million dollars should be set up to provide "immediate and urgent" assistance to the affected people and conduct comprehensive health and environmental assessment.
In a clarification announcement published on September 18, China's colour mining responded that the above complaint lacked ground, and the claim incident, the company has hired a local professional lawyer team to actively respond "to safeguard its legitimate rights and interests in accordance with the law".
Lion's strategy of opening its mouth wide
Zambia, a landlocked country, is rich in copper resources and is the leading major copper producer on the African continent. The country's economy is also deeply bound to the copper industry.
For a long time, China-owned energy and mining enterprises have been involved in the Zambia mining processing field extremely widely and in depth, typically represented by China's color mining-dominating Humbi Chi copper mine.
It was learned that since the late 1990s, the Zambia copper industry privatization, China Color Mining Co., Ltd. is the first Chinese enterprise to invest in the country's copper assets, the holding shareholder of the company is a large central enterprise directly owned by the State Capital Commission China Color Mining Group.
Data on China National Semiconductor Group's mines and smelters in Africa/Data source: Industrial Securities
Specifically, the objects of the lawsuit filed by Zambian farmers are Zambia Chambishi Hydrometallurgical Smelting Company and CNMC Africa Mining Co., Ltd., both of which are subsidiaries controlled and managed by China Nonferrous Mining Co., Ltd., and their main assets include Chambishi Copper Mine and Chambishi Hydrometallurgical Smelting Plant.
The Chambishi copper mine involved is located in Karuru City, Copper Belt Province, Zambia. It is the first non-ferrous metal mine built overseas by China and by far the largest. It was called "A landmark project of China-Africa cooperation."
Looking back on the historical development process of the humbi-shi copper mine, according to the summary of China's colour mining officials during interviews many years ago, "we are turning a dead mine that others don't want into a living mine."
Time back to 1998.China Nonferrous MiningThrough international tenders, with a $20 million tender cost, $1.6 billion in reconstruction construction investment, the acquisition of the ceased production of the Humphrey copper mine, by July 2003, the Humphrey main mine was successfully rebuilt.
After more than 20 years of development and operation, according to public information, including mining and smelting, the total annual production capacity of Chambishi Copper Mine has exceeded 30,000 tons, which is mainly through the mining of copper concentrate and hydrometallurgical smelting to produce metallic copper.
Today, as a listed company on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, China's colour mining side disclosed information at the end of August this year that in the first half of 2025, the company's realised profits exceeded $17.5 billion, a decline of 12.9%; the net profit was $3.71 billion, a growth of 22.5% compared to the same period.
in the first half of 2025.China's colour mining profits of over $17.5 billion
Therefore, it must be noted that the so-called sky-high claim amount of US $80 billion, combined with Zambia's relevant environmental protection law, may not have sufficient practical legal basis, but it has considerable symbolic significance.
From the point of view of communication,$80 billion + $200 million", such a combination of numbers is more like a strategic weapon of public opinion.
To put it simply, it is to enlarge the voice of filing a lawsuit to express its demands to the government and the people as much as possible. In the end, this lawsuit gets more international attention because of the eye-catching claim amount.
No matter how much of the final claim amount of US$80 billion will be implemented, in addition to economic losses, China companies will still have to be punished by punitive measures such as restricting exports, suspending production or even revoking licenses. With the intervention of external factors, more uncertainty will drag China's nonferrous mining industry into a passive governance situation.
Hidden crisis breaks out
A reality that cannot be overlooked is that human capital accumulation is not as sufficient in Zambia, where the educational level is relatively backward.
Specific to the mining field, there is a lack of relevant professionals, and because it is located inland and far away from the sea, Zambia and its local people have many unfavorable conditions to scientifically implement and promote the development of large-scale mining projects.
The exact location of the leakage occurred near the second-largest city of Zambia, Kitewe. In this copper town in the northern center of Zambia, the excavation of ground holes and the "black debris mountain" made up of abandoned land has become a common landscape in the local space.
Central metal injected out of Zambia mining tail dam near Kiev / Image Source: Visual China
In Kitwe, where the urban population has exceeded 40%, there are also many mine thieves who steal mines by illegal means and then resell them through black market transactions.
Through inquiries to past local reports, salt finance noted that since Chinese-owned enterprises entered the Zambia copper mining market, these grey groups have seen reports of robberies, harassment of Chinese enterprises, and even conflict of security incidents.
It can be said that public dissatisfaction with employment rates, confrontation between gangs, the rise of underground transactions ... the challenges intertwined in Zambia’s copper mine head, also made Chinese mining enterprises to invest overseas in Africa, in which the high risk has gradually emerged.
At least, for the Chambishi Copper Mine, the protagonist of this incident, the theft of anti-seepage membrane and other operating materials is one of the direct causes of the tragedy, and the accident is also the result of various potential risk factors in the past.
It is worth noting that at the end of April of this year, China's color mining industry disclosed a "2024 annual environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) report", the related pollution emission prevention and control, safety management system and other risks have been proposed, the document mentioned that the flood disaster in the Zambia region may damage mining equipment and infrastructure, to cope with the excavation of cracks, the use of submersible pump drainage and so on; for the tail mines, the company also requires the subsidiary to conduct environmental risk inspection work, closely monitor the surrounding soil condition, to ensure that there is no pollution problem.
It is not out of harsh criticism. In the face of the collapsed Kuangqu, since the work plan and goals have been proposed, in addition to the need for reflection on information transparency, companies need to do more to implement these measures.
On the other hand, Chinese mining companies in overseas suffer from “robbing”, “robbing” or other types of accidents, and it is not isolated.
Last year, the purple gold mining industry issued an announcement stating that the company's gold mine in Colombia was stolen by local gangs, the number is difficult to estimate, once on a hot search;
In July, another Chinese-owned mining company in Zimbabwe was also robbed by local gangs.
Recognizing that, when accidents and incidents occur, investors from China are likely to be redefined under manipulation by other investors in the country of occurrence,Misunderstood as resource predators, thus undermining the overall trust base of Chinese-owned enterprises abroad.
Therefore, a more valuable lesson learned by Chinese-funded mining companies is how to take into account environmental risks, social risks and legal risks, establish a strict and clear investment risk assessment system, and ensure that the safety of tailings dams and ecological restoration are fully met. Compliance is a key part of maintaining their reputation and image, avoiding losses such as compensation and production suspension.
Entrance to Zambia's gold and copper mining area near Kitewe / Image Source: Visual China
This also reflects that under the important issue of Chinese-funded enterprises going overseas, especially energy and mining enterprises exploring and developing overseas, the industry is highly dependent on a large number of labor force, and investors usually face complex situations and changeable situations that far exceed prior assessments.It can't be taken lightly.
Take the tailings of the Chambishi copper mine as an example. In August this year, the U.S. Embassy in Zambia issued a health warning, expressing concern about the "extensive pollution of water sources and soil" in the area, and ordered the evacuation of its staff in and around Kitwe, the largest city in the Copper Belt region.
Although a spokesman for the Zambian government later responded that the accident has no serious impact on public health at present, and said, "There is no need to press the 'panic button' today to alarm the whole country and the international community", there is no doubt that the focus of the international community on the trend of the accident and the focus of follow-up rectification has fallen on the class action lawsuit involving high compensation.
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Reprinted from WeChat public account: Salt Finance and Economics
This article only represents the author's personal views and does not represent the position of this public account