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Bulletins and News Discussion from March 17th to March 23rd, 2025 - The Kafue River Dies - COTW: Zambia

Image is of the breach in the tailings dam near Kitwe.

On February 18th, 50 million liters of acidic waste from a copper mine was accidentally released into the Kafue River after a tailings dam collapsed. The Kafue River stretches for a thousand miles across Zambia and a majority of the country - millions of people - rely on it, for both the economy and drinking water.

The results have already been catastrophic. The water supply for the city of Kitwe, home to 700,000 people, was completely shut off. As the wave of contamination moved downstream, a wave of death accompanied it as dead fish dotted the river surface. The government is dropping lime into the river to try and counteract the acid with an alkali and neutralize the water, but the tailings also contain toxic heavy metals that will undoubtably seep into the nearby environment and affect the area for years to come.

A considerable portion of the media attention to the accident has been devoted to the fact that the mine was Chinese-owned, as well as China's broader influence and investment in the region. Western anti-China propaganda aside, it has been clear to those in the know that these mines have been badly managed and needlessly dangerous for years now, and it is disappointing - to say the least - to see disasters of this magnitude occur from Chinese businesses. Hopefully this prompts a wave of investigations into China-owned mine managers all around the continent, who will then hopefully face real consequences for their actions.

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443 comments

  • Hmm

    “In retaliation to the continued brutal American aggression against our country, on the anniversary of the great Battle of Badr, and as an extension of Islam's march against tyranny and arrogance, these operations by the Yemeni Armed Forces come as

    Over the past few hours, the Yemeni Armed Forces have successfully targeted the US aircraft carrier USS Harry Truman in the northern Red Sea with two cruise missiles and two drones, and targeted a US destroyer with a cruise missile and four drones.

    The targeting of the aircraft carrier is the third in the past 48 hours. The enemy was struck by a state of confusion, which prompted many of its warships to retreat towards the northern Red Sea region, and an air attack that was being prepared against our country was thwarted.

    The US aggressor bears all the consequences of militarizing the Red Sea and expanding the scope of confrontation by continuing its aggression against Yemen, which negatively impacts international shipping traffic.

    The Yemeni Armed Forces affirm that they will not cease targeting all hostile targets in the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea until the aggression against our country stops. They are prepared, relying on Allah, to confront any American or Israeli escalation in the coming hours and days.

    The Yemeni Armed Forces salute all our beloved Yemeni people who took to the streets today in response to the call of Sayyid Abdulmalik Badr al-Din al-Houthi (may Allah protect him) on Al-Furqan Day, the anniversary of the Great Battle of Badr, to affirm their faith-based, jihadist stance in support of the Palestinian people and in rejection of the American aggression against our country.

    The Yemeni Armed Forces salute the steadfast Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and affirm that they will continue to ban the passage of Israeli ships from the declared zone of ​​operations until the blockade on the Gaza Strip is lifted.

    Sana'a: Ramadan 18, 1446 AH March 18, 2025 AD

    Issued by the Yemeni Armed Forces

    http://t.me/army21ye “

    • As a long time reader of these statements, successfully targeted doesn't mean a hit was achieved. The successful targeting part has to do with the ships retreating back to the north of the Red Sea and thwarting an attack, as explained later.

      • Isn't it also usually a large expenditure of interceptors and other defensive arms? It makes this very expensive and difficult for the Navy to maintain.

        • Interceptors they can't re-stock at sea and have to return to a navy port for

        • That really depends on what is being intercepted and how it's being intercepted. AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles launched from aircraft are $400K each. As for ship launched interceptors, SM-2 missiles are over $2 million, SM6 missiles over $4 million, and SM-3 missiles over $9 million. Sidewinders and SM-2 missiles can be used to intercept drones and cruise missiles, SM-3 and SM-6 can intercept ballistic missiles on top of that. Production rates are probably the bigger issue than costs though, the Navy can absorb the cost, but ultimately if there are no interceptors in the stockpiles, that's a bigger obstacle than cost.

          The US Air Force, which have been involved in protecting the Navy in the Red Sea, does have a cheaper way to intercept drones and maybe cruise missiles in APKWS, a conversion kit that turns unguided Hydra-70 rockets into laser guided missiles, at only $20K each. This can be used to take out air targets (it has been used for this purpose in Ukraine), but it's unknown if it's in active use right now. Further research shows that it is being used right now in the Red Sea. USAF F-16s in the CENTCOM area of operations have been seen equipped with APKWS.

          Article on APKWS use in the Red Sea

          So drone interception, and maybe cruise missile interception, can and is being made much cheaper. But ballistic missile interception is expensive, and there's no getting around that. However, it is also expensive for Ansarallah to produce and make/acquire advanced anti ship ballistic missiles. They didn't fire any ballistic missiles tonight according to their own statement. The real massive cost offset is in drone interception, where interceptors costing millions of dollars are used to intercept drones that cost tens of thousands of dollars. But that is being made cheaper. Ballistic technology is always going to be expensive for both sides. Iran doesn't provide public figures, but solid fueled MARV equipped ballistic missiles with terminal guidance systems to target ships are very expensive technology to manufacture or acquire. Other nations, from Russia, to Iraq under Saddam Hussein, to China, spent millions of dollars per ballistic missile, for less sophisticated missiles than those currently in use by Ansarallah.

443 comments