The construction of a Chinese copper smelter in Zambia will resume next week after days of unrest which led to the sacking of some 500 workers over labour disputes, the company announced Saturday.
Company secretary Sun Chuanqi said the firm has reinstated 220 workers from the 500 originally dismissed for causing unrest at the company, whose property was destroyed in a protest over poor wages.
"The situation has normalised," Chuanqi said in a statement.
"So Monday, we expect to resume construction," he said, adding those workers that have been reinstated would remain so long as they did not cause any trouble.
The 200 million-dollar copper smelter is being constructed in Zambia's mining town of Chambeshi, about 410 kilometres (255 miles) north of the capital.
Clashes Tuesday between Zambian workers and their Chinese colleagues at the plant left two Zambians and a Chinese worker badly injured.
Workers, who staged a similar work stoppage a month ago, said their monthly salaries amounted to a mere 50 dollars (33 euros) a month and complained of poor medical facilities.
Chinese investors in the southern African nation are often criticised for poor safety records.
This criticism grew after 2005, when 50 Zambian miners died in an explosion at a Chinese-owned copper mine at Chambeshi.
Copper is Zambia's major export earner and contributes more than half of the country's gross domestic product.
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AFP
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