Zambia: Mining in Toxic Lead Waste Poisons Children

Zawya

05-03-2025

In the Zambian city of Kabwe, children suffer severe health effects due to lead poisoning because of extreme pollution from the toxic lead waste of a former mine.
Zambia's government is facilitating new hazardous lead and zinc mining and processing of the toxic waste, posing major additional health risks to children.
The Zambian government should suspend operations, revoke licenses of companies involved in the hazardous activities, and embark on a full clean-up of Kabwe's lead waste.
Zambia 's government is facilitating hazardous mining and processing of toxic lead waste in the city of Kabwe that poses major health risks to children, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. These business activities add to the harm faced by Kabwe residents, who have been exposed to toxic lead for decades from a former lead and zinc mine.
The 67-page report, ' Poisonous Profit: Lead Waste Mining and Children's Right to a Healthy Environment in Kabwe, Zambia,' documents the Zambian government's issuance of mining and processing licenses for South African, Chinese, and local businesses and its failure to intervene against blatant violations of Zambian environmental and mining law by several mining and processing companies.
'The Zambian government should be protecting people from highly hazardous activities, not enabling them,' said Juliane Kippenberg, associate children's rights director at Human Rights Watch. 'Companies are profiting in Kabwe from mining, removing, and processing lead waste at the expense of children's health.'
Human Rights Watch interviewed miners and community members in Kabwe and carried out open-source research and geospatial analysis. Human Rights Watch wrote to the government and 16 companies requesting information and received responses from the Ministry of Green Economy and Environment, the South African company Jubilee Metals Group, and a local businessman.
Lead is a highly toxic metal and is particularly harmful to children. It can result in coma and death, as well as intellectual disability and ill-health. During pregnancy, it can result in miscarriage and other complications. Researchers estimate that over 95 percent of children living near the former mine in Kabwe have elevated blood lead levels, and about half of them urgently require medical treatment.
Businesses have conducted or facilitated hazardous mining and processing to extract zinc, lead, or other minerals in lead-contaminated waste around Kabwe's former mine area between 2022 and late 2024. Companies have removed significant amounts of waste from the mine and placed open piles across Kabwe, putting the health of residents further at risk.
'The waste piles across Kabwe are very concerning,' said an 18-year-old activist. 'Number one, because children tend to play around them or on top of them. Also, those mountains of waste are taken to other places in Kabwe – they are not sealed off from the public, and this makes those areas toxic, too.'
Small-scale and artisanal miners have mined lead, zinc, and other minerals on the concession of Jubilee Metals' subsidiary, Enviro Processing Limited (EPL), which has a mining license for much of the former Kabwe mine area. Miners said that security guards at the site had allowed them to enter, though Jubilee Metals denies this. Hazardous artisanal mining in lead waste has also taken place at a nearby area controlled by a local politician. Miners said that they sometimes sold mined material to the Chinese processing companies Datong Industries, Chengde Mining, and Superdeal Investments.
In mid-2023, businesses and individuals began to remove large amounts of waste from the EPL concession by truck and to transport it to other parts of Kabwe. Several waste piles were placed outside the premises of processing companies. Satellite imagery analysis revealed that by January 2024, nine waste piles were visible. Several sources said that Kabwe Kamukuba Small Scale Mining Cooperative Society, a local cooperative involved in removing the waste in 2023, was connected to ruling party leaders who may have financially benefitted. The waste removal, which Jubilee Metals described as trespassing and theft, continued through 2024.
Globally, zinc and lead are highly sought-after metals, including for the world's urgently needed fossil fuel phaseout and transition to renewable energy. The Zambian government has designated zinc and lead in Kabwe as 'critical minerals' needed for the global energy transition.
The Zambian government has not done enough to enforce mining, environmental, and labor regulations, Human Rights Watch said. Under Zambian law, the government has the authority to sanction companies because of an 'unsafe working environment' or 'uncontrollable pollution.' The government, to Human Rights Watch's knowledge, has not taken such steps against businesses involved in the hazardous mining, removing, and processing of lead waste in Kabwe. The Zambia Environmental Management Agency has not published these businesses' environmental impact assessments, nor has it used its authority to suspend operations where they violate environmental law.
Small-scale and artisanal miners eke out a living by digging for minerals in the waste piles. Several women miners told Human Rights Watch that they take their children to work because they need the income. One is a 32-year-old mother who took her son to work until he developed severe memory problems at age fifteen. She told Human Rights Watch: 'We are constantly living in fear because it is not a safe area … [but] it is the only way I can sustain my children.… I would love a different job.'
Kabwe's mine was opened during the British colonial period and closed in 1994, leaving an estimated 6.4 million tons of uncovered lead waste dumps. Since then, lead has contaminated residential areas, exposing up to 200,000 people. In 2020, lawyers filed a class action lawsuit in a South African court against the mining company Anglo American for its alleged role—contested by the company—in the Kabwe mine from 1925 to 1974, seeking compensation, a lead-screening system for affected children and women, and remediation of the area. The court dismissed the case, but claimants have said they will appeal the decision.
While the Zambian government has taken some measures to mitigate Kabwe's lead contamination through the World Bank-funded Zambia Mining and Environmental Remediation and Improvement Project, it has failed to clean up the source of contamination. The government has recognized the need for a broader cleanup but has seemingly done little to put words into action. President Hakainde Hichilema has twice—in March 2022 and April 2024 —announced the creation of a government committee to address the contamination, but no committee has been set up.
The Zambian government should suspend operations and revoke licenses of companies involved in the hazardous mining, removal, and processing of lead-bearing waste in Kabwe, Human Rights Watch said. It should conduct a comprehensive program to provide a remedy for the former lead mine and its waste in close consultation with affected communities, civil society, and experts. To fund this effort, the Zambian government should seek technical and financial support from donor agencies and companies responsible for the pollution.
'The Zambian government should prioritize children's health over mining profit,' Kippenberg said. 'Only comprehensive remediation of the mine waste can protect children and future generations in Kabwe from toxic lead.'
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Human Rights Watch (HRW).