Zambia's production of finished copper may reach a target of 800,000 tonnes well ahead of a 2008 government projection, boosted by high global prices and sustained investment, a cabinet minister said on Tuesday.
Mines and Minerals Development Minister Kalombo Mwansa told Reuters on the sidelines of an investment conference in South Africa that the copper industry, his country's main hard currency earner, was booming and the outlook was positive.
"Investments in mining are in the region of $1.3 billion to $1.4 billion in the last four years and we have started to reap the benefits of the investments," Mwansa told Reuters. "Very soon we may go to 800,000 tonnes and we are talking of 1.0 million in the next five years or so to make us one of the leading copper producers (in the world)," Mwansa said.
Early this year the mining ministry forecast production of finished copper at 600,000 tonnes in 2006. Zambia had also started enjoying the benefits of high global copper prices because of profit-share arrangements government had entered with foreign mining companies, Mwansa said.
"We structured our agreements in such a way that we will share the super profits under what we call price participation agreements. Those (price) windfall gains aray.
Major mining players in Zambia - including London-listed Vedanta Resources, Canada's First Quantum Minerals and Australia's Equinox Minerals Limited - have all ploughed millions of dollars in refurbishing or building mining infrastructure in the past several years.
Zambia has just opened a new copper mining belt in its north-west region, which borders Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where the first copper should be dug out in 2007. Copper mining is Zambia's main economic lifeblood and the copper mines are a major employer in this country of 10 million people.