Copperbelt Province

The Copperbelt exists because copper exists—but understanding why matters more than knowing what. This 400-kilometer arc straddling Zambia and the DRC holds the world's second-largest copper reserve, roughly one-third the size of Chile's. Local people worked these ores for centuries, but commercial extraction began in 1920 when colonial investors realized that electrification would create insatiable copper demand. Kitwe, Ndola, Mufulira, Chingola—these cities didn't exist before mining. They were created from scratch, imported wholesale into the bush to house workers for an industrial operation that fueled British Northern Rhodesia's economy. The 1973 copper price crash demonstrated monoculture's danger: when the single commodity that justifies your existence loses value, everything collapses. By 2025, Zambia's copper production has rebounded—up 12% in 2024 to 820,000 tonnes, with Q1 2025 showing 30% year-over-year growth. The revival comes from reactivated mines: Konkola Copper Mines (Vedanta, $1.3 billion investment), Mopani (now UAE-owned after a $1.1 billion acquisition), and Barrick's Lumwana expansion. But the Copperbelt's future isn't just about extraction—it's about infrastructure. The Lobito Corridor would connect the province to Angola's Atlantic port, while China revamps the Tazara railway to Tanzania's Indian Ocean coast. Electric vehicle demand makes copper a 'green' metal, potentially tripling Zambia's output by 2031. By 2026, the province faces a question familiar to resource-dependent regions: will the wealth created by global copper demand stay in Zambia, or will it follow the colonial pattern of extraction without transformation?