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China Invests in Zambia's Copper Belt
July 31, 2008 |Estimated reading time: 1 minute
LUSAKA, Zambia Chinese investment in Zambian copper mines and smelting plants has led much speculation into the availability and cost of this raw material used in copper-clad laminates (CCLs), lead-free solders, bonding wires, PCBs, and other essential electronics production materials.
The African nation's vast copper resources have not exempted the copper mining industry from stifling oil prices and limited infrastructure. Chinese investment is an economic and political package, with road development services and other provisions between the countries designed to strengthen infrastructure and bolster copper production, according to a report released by National Public Radio (NPR). The newspaper Zambia Daily Mail reportedly quoted the Southern Province Minister of Zambia, Daniel Munkombwe, paying tribute to the Chinese government for its continued support to economic infrastructure development in Zambia. This is supported in the paper by Vice Minister for International Department of Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Li Jinjun, proposing twin cities in the two countries.
The country also offers other materials valuable to electronics assembly. Cobalt producer Chambishi Metals is investigating methods for extracting copper from its cobalt processing waste. Australia's Albidon Ltd. plans to expand its concentrator at its Zambia nickel mine after it is fully commissioned in 2009, Reuters reports. The Munali Nickel mine's concentrator will expand to 1.2 million tonnes capacity per year. "The first nickel-copper-cobalt platinum group metals (PGM) concentrate has been produced at the Munali Nickel Project," Albidon reports. This PGM stockpile will be sold to China's Jinchuan Group.
Zambia's copper production for the five months (January to May) this year rose to 215889 tonnes, compared with 196071 tonnes in the same period of 2007.