Mining companies operating in Zambia will have to get used to higher power tariffs because the government can’t afford to subsidize them and needs to encourage private investment in generation to alleviate a chronic supply shortage, Mines Minister Christopher Yaluma said.
“The tariffs have been very, very low and far from cost-reflective,” Yaluma said in an interview at the Investing in African Mining Indaba conference in Cape Town on Wednesday. The mining companies “want us to pay. They must be realistic.”
