"Poisonous Profit: Lead Waste Mining and Children’s Right to a Healthy Environment in Kabwe, Zambia" Human Rights Watch, 5 March 2025

Kabwe, the capital of Zambia’s Central Province, is one of the most lead-polluted places in the world because of contamination from a former industrial lead and zinc mine and smelter.

Decades of mining and smelting operations have resulted in an estimated 6.4 million tons of lead-bearing waste piles.

[...] lead dust from the former mine’s large, uncovered waste dumps blows across nearby residential areas and contaminates homes, yards, schools, and roads, exposing up to 200,000 people.

[...] over 95 percent of children living near the former mine have elevated lead levels in their blood, and that about half of these children urgently require medical treatment.

[...] Numerous businesses are mining, trading, and processing lead waste at the former mine and its surroundings.

Piles of dark, sandy material, several meters high, have started to appear by roadsides and outside processing plants. The piles are unfenced, and there are no signs warning that it is lead waste.

Mining, removal, and transport of the waste has generated more lead dust and spread it to other parts of Kabwe, resulting in huge additional health risks for people who have already been exposed to toxic lead for decades.

One company, Enviro Processing Limited (EPL), has a mining license for the largest part of the former Kabwe mine area [...] EPL is a subsidiary of the South African company Jubilee Metals Group.

Jubilee Metals told Human Rights Watch [...] that it has not conducted mining operations on its concession. [...] Small-scale miners interviewed said that security guards on site have allowed them to enter through an EPL gate on numerous occasions, though the leadership of Jubilee Metals denied this, saying that miners have entered their premises without permission.

[...] research suggests ZALCO has allowed local small-scale miners to mine zinc on its premises and then bought their zinc.

Miners have told Human Rights Watch they have also sold lead or zinc directly to three Chinese processing companies: Datong Industries, Chengde Mining, and Superdeal Investments; these companies did not respond to these allegations.

Chinese businesses have invested in small-scale mining in Zambia (and elsewhere in Africa) by partnering with and buying from local miners or license holders.

Waste piles have been placed in publicly accessible locations in Kabwe without warning or fencing, including outside the premises of Datong Industries, Chengde Mining, Union Star Industry, and other businesses.

Children as young as 7 are doing this work, despite the extreme health risks.

[...] soil contamination in Kabwe reaches 60,000 milligrams of lead per kilogram; contamination above 200 milligrams per kilogram is considered a hazard [...].

Human Rights Watch does not have conclusive information that all companies named have processed lead waste. However, 6 of the 10 companies are listed in the Zambia Mining Cadastre as processing lead, zinc, or both of these minerals in Kabwe, which requires mining in lead-bearing material:

• Chengde Mining (license number 34486-HQ-MPL)
• Chiman Manufacturing (not listed in the Zambia Mining Cadastre)
• Dashun Industry Company (license number 27408-HQ-MPL)
• Datong Industries (not listed in the Zambia Mining Cadastre)
• Ferro Alloys Corporation (license number 29021-HQ-MPL)
• Finesteel Manufacturing (not listed in the Zambia Mining Cadastre)
• San He (Zambia) (license number 35119-HQ-MPL)
• Superdeal Investments (license number 30841-HQ-MPL)
• Union Star Industry (license number 25646-HQ-MPL)
• ZALCO (not listed in the Zambia Mining Cadastre)”

Datong Industries operates openly in Kabwe, and evidence suggests that it has purchased material from miners working under hazardous conditions.

[...] neither ZEMA nor Datong Industries had responded to Human Rights Watch’s request for the current environmental impact assessment and approval letter.

The government closed down operations at Ferro Alloys Corporation in September 2023 due to regulatory violations.

[...] neither ZEMA nor Ferro Alloys Corporation had responded to Human Rights Watch’s request for the current environmental impact assessment and approval letter.