Zambia is Internationally recognised as a
major producer of copper and cobalt. Zambia is ranked as the world's
seventh largest producer of copper, generating 3.3% of the western
worlds production, and worlds second largest producer of cobalt (19.7%).
It also has significant quantities of
selenium (+-16.7t) and silver (+- 8t) together with minor gold and
platinum group elements which are produced as important by-products of
the copper mining and processing.
More than 300 gold occurrences have been
reported throughout the country.
Copper mineralization was first discovered at the turn
of the century but large scale production only commenced in
the 1930’s with the start-up of Roan Antelope (Luanshya - 1931),
followed rapidly by Nkana (1932),
Mufulira (1933) and then Nchanga in 1939. Copper production exceeded
400,000t.p.a. in the late 1950’s
and reached a peak of 700,00t.p.a. in 1969-1976 before beginning a
progressive decline and sinking to
a 1995 low of 307,000t.p.a. However, the privatization of Zambia
Consolidated Copper Mines (ZCCM) will
activate the remaining industry and halt this decline. With a total
mineral resource of at least two billion tonnes
on the Copperbelt alone, there is no doubt that copper and cobalt
production will soon begin a significant
upward trend.
Zambia has a history of gold mining
on a relatively small scale,
with the twenty larger deposits
having produced a total
of slightly more than 2t of gold
since modern mining began
in 1902. The largest past producers are Dunrobin (990kg gold), Jessie
(390kg), Sasare (390kg), and Matala (225kg); Dunrobin has recently been
re-opened by Reunion Mining and is scheduled to produce 500-600kg gold
per annum. More than 300 gold occurrences have been reported throughout
the country.
