ZAMBIA STAGNATE AT 6th ON THE WORLD TOP COPPER PRODUCERS LIST
… a case of us failing to drive a BMW on a full tank to speed beyond 50 km/h on a 6 lane zero pothole high way to the Copperbelt (Kabushi, Kwacha, Mufurila, Chingola etc)
By Miles B. Sampa, MP (18.10.2022)
Zambia is amongst the top copper producers in the World but has relatively remained stagnant when compared to peers.
Imagine 3 babies born on the same date in Zambia, Chile and Congo DR.
They find that God gave their Countries of birth a million football grounds everywhere visible.
50 years later the child born in Chile 🇨🇱 becomes the soccer ⚽️ World Cup winner. One born in Congo DR takes Silver medal.
Despite also having a million stadia as Chile and Congo DR, Zambia not only did not qualify for the World Cup, but still remains in the amateur divisions or ranks.
Chile and Zambia’ s copper production were at par in 1964. Zambian and Congo DR share the same huge rock of copper underground and above surface there are ‘imaginary’ man made separation of the rock called borders namely Mikambo and Kasumbalesa border.
It’s the same big rock of copper deep underground that forms the foundation base for the North Western and the Copperbelt provinces in Zambia while on the Congo DRC side the province is called Kantanga.
With that in mind, here is the current global Copper production status quo. A total of 21 million metric tones (MT) of Copper is produced globally.
Too 10 Copper producers ranking by Country.
(Source: USA Geological survey 2022)
1. Chile (5.6 million MT)
2. Peru, (2.2 million MT)
3. Congo & China (1.8 million MT in 2021)
4. USA (1.2 million MT in 2021)
5. Austrailia (900,000 MT in 2021)
6. Zambia 🇿🇲 (2021)
Mine production: 830,000 MT
Copper production fell last year in Zambia, which ranks sixth in terms of copper production by country. Its 2021 rate of 830,000 MT was down from 2020’s production of 853,000 MT. There are four major mines that dominate the country’s copper production, including Barrick Gold’s (TSX:ABX,NYSE:GOLD) Lumwana, First Quantum Minerals’ (TSX:FM,OTC Pink:FQVLF) Kansanshi and Konkola Copper Mines, a subsidiary of Vedanta Resources (NYSE:VEDL). The Zambian government recently took complete ownership of Mopani Copper Mines (in which it had a 10 percent stake) from Glencore.
7. Russia (820,000 MT in 2021)
8. Indonesia (810,000 MT in 2021)
9. Mexico (720,000 MT in 2021)
10. Canada (590,000 MT in 2021)
If our copper production strategies since independence was football, It would have been called chipantepante. Kick in whichever direction convenient when in possession of the ball.
We have been indecisive swinging from nationalisation, privatization to mixed approach.
We have now coined a 10 year plan to boost production and have done so by varying the Mineral Royalty Tax (MRT) calculations. We have forgone huge revenue to the public Treasury. The aim as we have been told is to maintain and attract foreign investors that will jumpstart our copper production to desired levels. Happens to be a decade strategy and a gamble that might or might not work.
We need a factual (not political) research to establish why we have lagged behind peers in our Copper mining.
It’s never too late to change our mindset and strategy so as to catch up with the Congo DR 🇨🇩 current copper production levels of 1.8m MT compared to our meagre 830,000 MT. All this when the Congo DR has far more tribal, political, economical and security challenges than those of Zambia.
Together We Can
MBS20.10.2022