Zambia Aims to Double Copper Production, Mining Director Says
Johannesburg, July 4 (Bloomberg) -- Zambia hopes to more than
double production of copper over the next five to seven years as
foreign investors expand previously state-owned mines, said Willy
Sweta, the Zambian government's director of mines.
Zambia's copper production, which peaked at about 720,000
metric tons a year in the 1970s, was less than 300,000 tons last
year. In March last year, Zambia sold some of its biggest copper
mines to a group led by Anglo American Plc, the No. 2 mining
company.
``We should be seeing production approaching those levels we
had seen in early 1970s,'' Sweta told a mining conference in
Johannesburg. Zambia projected production of ``600,000 to 7000,00
tons a year,'' he said.
Mining produce accounts for about 90 percent of Zambia's
exports, 20 percent of its gross domestic product and about 10
percent of the country's employment.
--Jonathan Rosenthal in Johannesburg on (27 11) 286-1900 or
jrosenthal1@bloomberg.net /kjm |
