Zambia’s mining targets appear unachievable

Significance

Zambia’s economy is heavily dependent on copper, and the government is seeking to boost production to 3 million tonnes by 2030 to leverage rising global demand for copper due to its use in green technologies.

Impacts

• Lower-than-expected mining revenues could cause difficulties for Zambia’s repayments under a recently agreed debt restructuring deal.
• Government promises of an economic transformation will fuel political disappointment if this fails to materialise.
• Global renewable energy targets will be harder to achieve without sufficient copper supplies to build renewable energy technologies.