Judges say environmental harm may take years to emerge as 177 residents pursue constitutional claims over the 2025 spill.
By Charles Mafa in Kabwe
The Supreme Court has directed that the Government of Zambia be joined to a case in which Sino Metals Leach Zambia Limited, a subsidiary of the state-owned China Nonferrous Metal Mining Group (CNMC), is challenging a High Court decision allowing a constitutional petition by affected residents to proceed.
A panel of three Supreme Court judges — Deputy Chief Justice Michael Musonda, Justice Nigel Mutuna and Justice Fulgency Mwenya Chisanga — sitting in Kabwe, Central Province, held that the government, as the custodian of the public interest, must be heard before the appeal can proceed because the issues raised extend beyond the parties directly involved.
The court further observed that environmental matters often have long-term consequences, noting that the full effects of environmental harm may not become apparent until a decade or more after the accident.
The ruling comes as 177 residents of Kalusale, a community in Kalulushi district near the mining city of Kitwe on Zambia’s Copperbelt Province, prepare for another legal battle more than a year after a toxic waste spill devastated farms, contaminated water sources and overturned livelihoods.
On 3 June 2026, the Supreme Court, sitting in Kabwe, was supposed to hear an appeal by Sino Metals against a High Court decision that permitted the constitutional petition filed by the affected residents to proceed. The petition also names NFC Africa Mining Plc, within whose mining area the tailings dams were located, as a respondent.
Sino Metals and NFC Africa Mining are private limited companies engaged in mining operations in Chambishi, Kalulushi district. Sino Metals’ operations — including an open-pit mine, concentrator plant and tailings storage dams — are situated within NFC Africa Mining’s surface rights area and plant boundary.
At the centre of the dispute is the February 2025 collapse of multiple tailings dams, which released vast quantities of acidic and toxic waste into the Chambishi Stream, Mwambashi River and the wider Kafue River system. The incident triggered what environmental experts and affected communities have described as one of Zambia’s most serious mining-related environmental disasters in recent decades.
The petitioners are being supported by the Southern Africa Litigation Centre (SALC) and are represented by Messrs Malambo and Company Advocates and Messrs Lusitu Chambers. Sino Metals is represented by Chibesakunda & Company.
The petition seeks to hold the mining companies accountable for the environmental, economic and social consequences of the spill, which residents say destroyed crops, polluted water sources and undermined their ability to earn a living.
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