The Zambia Copperbelt was, in the mid-20th century, one of the world's most productive mining regions. The belt's rich copper deposits, straddling the Zambia-DRC border, made Zambia one of the wealthiest African nations at independence in 1964 and a significant contributor to global copper supply for decades. The collapse of copper prices in the 1970s and 1980s, followed by failed privatisation and chronic underinvestment, hollowed out the sector.
A new investment cycle is now underway, driven by the electric vehicle revolution's voracious demand for copper. Every electric vehicle contains three to four times more copper than a conventional combustion engine vehicle. Global copper demand is projected to double by 2035, and the supply to meet that demand will come partly from new African investment.
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New Investment Cycle
Zambia's copper production fell to a 50-year low of 720,000 tonnes in 2022. Under a restructured investment framework, production is forecast to rise to 1 million tonnes by 2026 and potentially 3 million tonnes by 2031 if planned investments proceed.
The major investor is First Quantum Minerals, a Canadian company that operates the Kansanshi and Sentinel mines. China's CNMC controls several major Copperbelt assets. International Resources Holding, backed by UAE capital, acquired Mopani Copper Mines from Glencore in 2021 and has committed $1.1 billion in development capital. Ivanhoe Mines is developing the Kamoa-Kakula project on the DRC side of the border, adjacent to Zambia.
Beneficiation: Moving Up the Value Chain
Zambia's government has set an explicit target of producing battery-grade copper products, specifically copper sulfate and copper foil used in EV battery manufacturing, rather than exporting only copper cathode. A battery materials industrial park is being developed near Ndola, with Chinese investment in copper refining and battery precursor processing.
The logic is clear: copper cathode trades at $9,000-10,000 per tonne. Battery-grade copper foil commands $15,000-20,000 per tonne. Capturing this value increment domestically rather than exporting it could add $3-5 billion to Zambia's annual export revenues at projected production levels.
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