Will the Zambian Government find an investor for Mopani Copper Mines?

Will the Zambian Government find an investor for Mopani Copper Mines?

Zambia’s Government is close to finding an investor for Mopani Copper Mines, according to President Hakainde Hichilema

Blue View

In January 2021, Glencore announced that its subsidiary Carlisa Investments, in which Glencore holds 81.2%, had signed an agreement with ZCCM Investments Holding to transfer its 90% interest in Mopani Copper Mines to ZCCM for US$1 plus US$1.5Bn of debt. The state-owned enterprise was already the owner of the remaining 10% interest in Mopani.  The operation includes a concentrator, a smelter and a refinery at the Mufulira mine site, and underground mines, open-pit mines, a concentrator and a cobalt plant (closed since 2021) at the Nkana mine site in Kitwe.  

Zambia’s Government thus took on US$1.5Bn in debt to buy Mopani from Glencore and has been looking for a new investor for the mine ever since.  Project Blue understands that the operations need significant investment to increase output, and the environmental credentials of the site are questionable. Glencore bought Mopani Copper Mines in 2000, inheriting a longstanding sulphur emissions problem that has angered local communities.