While Vedanta cheered over South Africa's recent court ruling against the Zambian government's liquidation of its majority-owned Konkola Copper Mines (KCM), Zambian officials rebuked the decision and denied the enforceability of the foreign ruling that determines the future of the country's largest copper smelting assets.
The South Gauteng High Court on Tuesday July 23 granted Vedanta an urgent interim interdict to stop the Zambian government from forcing through a liquidation of KCM, which could involve a plan to sell the disputed assets which have received $3 billion of investment from Vedanta and is 79.4%-owned by the Indian company. Vedanta welcomed the ruling from the South African court, saying on the same date in a media statement that the implication is that the KCM provisional liquidator could be discharged from the office. The Nchanga copper smelter with its...