China Development Bank provides $160 million loan for Phase I of the Sinoma Zambia Building Materials Industrial Park Project (Linked to Record ID#59374, #85243)

Project narrative

On October 26, 2015, Zambezi Resources Ltd. (ZRL), an Australian company, signed a Share Sale Agreement selling Mpande Limestone Ltd. (Zambia) to a Chinese construction firm based in Zambia called African Brothers Corporation (ABC). Then, on May 24, 2016, Sinoma Cement Ltd. — a subsidiary of state-owned China National Building Materials (CNBM) Group— and ABC signed a shareholder agreement in which Sinoma took an 85% stake in Mpande Limestone Ltd. (Zambia). On November 7, 2016, China Development Bank (CDB) and Sinoma Mpande Limestone Ltd. signed a $160 million USD loan agreement for Phase I of the Sinoma Zambia Building Materials Industrial Park Project. The borrowing terms are unknown. Bank of China signed a asset supervision and management agreement for the loan project at the same event. Mpande Limestone Ltd. is a project company created in 2008 to design, finance, and implement the project. In July 2014, it completed an Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) and received approval from the Zambia Environment Management Agency (ZEMA) to start work on the Industrial Pak. Then, it received a Large Mining License from Zambia’s Ministry of Mining in August 2014. A groundbreaking ceremony for Phase I of the Sinoma Zambia Building Materials Industrial Park Project took place on October 11, 2015. But Mpande Limestone Ltd did not acquire a land title deed for the project site until April 8, 2016, so construction actually began on October 15, 2016. This project was ultimately completed on July 26, 2018. This 100 square km industrial park was built to provide the country with high-quality construction materials such as cement, aggregate, manufactured sand, commercial concrete and sintered brick. It is expected to create about 2,000 jobs and a large amount of tax revenue, as well as boost local transport, packaging and service industries. The total $500 million USD investment is divided into two phases of rolling construction. The status of phase II is unknown. In 2016, Mpande Limestone Ltd. spent $1.21 million USD for the Nachitete Primary School and Hospital Construction Project (#59374, #85243) for the Zambians this industrial park project displaced.