Loading ...Zambia Hands First Quantum $7.9 Billion Tax Bill After Audit
Zambia handed First Quantum Minerals Ltd. a $7.9 billion tax bill and said it’s planning an audit of other mining companies going back six years. The Canadian miner’s shares fell the most in almost two years.
First Quantum received a letter from the Zambia Revenue Authority dated Monday “noting an assessment for import duties, penalties and interest on consumables and spare parts,” the Vancouver-based company said Tuesday in a statement. The southern African nation accounts for 84 percent of its revenue.
“The company unequivocally refutes this assessment which does not appear to have any discernible basis of calculation and will continue working with the ZRA, as it normally does, to resolve the issue,” it said.
First Quantum isn’t the first miner to be hit with a massive tax bill for operations in Africa. Last summer, Tanzania sent Acacia Mining Plc a demand for payment equal to almost two centuries’ worth of the gold miner’s revenue. And the Democratic Republic of Congo is moving ahead with a new mining code that would dramatically raise taxes and royalty payments.