Zambia's largest copper mine has said it was ready to meet the government to renegotiate the mineral royalty taxes earlier agreed upon for the mining firm.

"For as long as government's plan is to renegotiate development agreements for purposes of boosting the economy, we have no problems with that," director of operations for Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) CP Baid was quoted by Saturday's Zambia Daily Mail as saying.

He said KCM was ready to engage in constructive negotiations with the government to look at how to revamp the economy.

The Zambian government has proposed to amend the mineral royalty tax from the original 0.6 percent to three percent for key exports of copper and cobalt after the copper price increased tremendously on international market.

Zambia, a major copper producer in the world, insisted that it should benefit from the windfall of high copper price.

The lower-than-average royalty tax was offered to foreign investors at a time when Zambia was privatizing its sluggish copper mines in the early 1990s.

KCM, jointly owned by the Zambian government and Indian mining firm Vedanta Resources, which has a majority stake and is managing the mines, is capable of producing 200,000 tons of copper annually.

Source: Xinhua