LUSAKA, Nov 6 (Reuters) - Vedanta Resources and the Zambian government on Monday sealed an agreement that restores the Indian company's ownership of Konkola Copper Mines (KCM), ending a protracted ownership battle that stifled investment in the copper assets.
Zambia's mines minister Paul Kabuswe witnessed the signing of the agreement between state firm ZCCM-IH with Vedanta's head of base metals Chris Griffith in Lusaka, officially handing the copper assets, which the state seized in 2019, back to Vedanta.
The signing of the agreement will pave the way for the re-appointment of the KCM board and withdrawal of all legal challenges that are in court, including a provisional liquidator who was in charge of the assets, Kabuswe said.
The government, which owns a 20% stake in KCM through ZCCM-IH, said in September that
it had reached an agreement
to allow Vedanta to resume control of the mines and smelter after the company pledged to invest about $1.2 billion at the operations.
Billionaire Anil Agarwal's Vedanta mounted numerous legal challenges including suing Zambia at the arbitration court in London to regain control of the KCM after former President Edgar Lungu's government orchestrated the seizure of the copper assets by forcing the operations into liquidation in May 2019.
While the Zambian administration then accused the company of failure to invest in boosting copper output, the forced takeover and the legal challenges created a legal conundrum which stifled investments and nearly crippled operations. (Reporting by Chris Mfula, Writing by Felix Njini; editing by David Evans and Jonathan Oatis)
