Zambia produced 890,346 tonnes of copper in 2025, a record, and still missed its own target. The government had promised one million tonnes. It got an 8 percent rise instead, and moved the million-tonne marker to 2026. The miss matters less than the machinery behind it: three of the country’s largest mines are mid-way through expansions or recoveries that were never going to land in a single year.
The ownership map explains the production map. First Quantum runs the two giants in North-Western Province, Barrick is doubling Lumwana, Vedanta is back at Konkola after a five-year legal war, and Abu Dhabi capital is reviving Mopani. Here are the ten Zambian mines that decide whether the million-tonne year arrives.
Which is the biggest mine in Zambia?
By 2025 output, Sentinel at Kalumbila: 189,000 tonnes of copper, all First Quantum. Kansanshi produced 181,000 tonnes and will likely take the lead in 2026, because its 1.25 billion dollar S3 expansion reached commercial production in December 2025 and nearly doubles milling capacity.
The ten that matter
- Sentinel (First Quantum). 189,000 tonnes in 2025, down 42,000 on 2024 on lower grades and maintenance. Still the single largest producer.
- Kansanshi (First Quantum 80%, ZCCM-IH 20%). 181,000 tonnes in 2025, of which the new S3 plant contributed 25,000 in its first months. Watch this one pass Sentinel.
- Lumwana (Barrick). 123,000 tonnes in 2024 and a 2 billion dollar Super Pit expansion under construction that lifts throughput from 27 to 52 million tonnes of ore and doubles output to a life-of-mine average of 240,000 tonnes a year. Barrick’s Zambian output was already up 41 percent by September 2025.
- Konkola (Vedanta ~80%, ZCCM-IH 20.6%). The comeback story: 80,215 tonnes in 2025, up 367 percent, after Vedanta regained control in July 2024 and ended the provisional liquidation that had strangled the mine since 2019. Vedanta has since housed KCM in a US-domiciled vehicle, CopperTech Metals, with reported plans to invest 1.5 billion dollars toward a 300,000-tonne-a-year target by 2030.
- Mopani (IRH 51%, ZCCM-IH 49%). Abu Dhabi’s International Resources Holding put in 1.1 billion dollars from March 2024. Output rose 40 percent in 2025, contained copper in the first half was up 54 percent, and the target is 200,000 tonnes a year within about three years, with a workforce above 13,000.
- Chambishi (CNMC 85%, ZCCM-IH 15%). China Nonferrous’s long-running operation, roughly 70,000 tonnes a year of capacity. Steady rather than spectacular.
- Lubambe (JCHX 80%, ZCCM-IH 20%). China’s JCHX bought control in July 2024 with about 300 million dollars of planned investment and a 45,000-tonne-a-year ramp-up target from a small base.
- Mimbula (Moxico Resources 92.5%). 14,000 tonnes of cathode in 2024, Phase 2 building toward 56,000 tonnes of capacity by mid-2026, part-funded by a 50 million dollar copper stream from Ecora.
- Chibuluma (Jinchuan). Small, around 10,000 tonnes a year historically, but a fixture of the Copperbelt’s Chinese-owned mid-tier.
- Mingomba (KoBold Metals 80%, ZCCM-IH 20%). Not producing, and still on this list. The AI-driven explorer backed by Gates and Bezos calls it Zambia’s largest copper discovery in a century, with capital cost estimated at 2.3 to 2.5 billion dollars and first copper targeted for the early 2030s at around 300,000 tonnes a year. Every engineering and construction firm in the region should have this on a timeline.
Will Zambia reach one million tonnes of copper?
Probably in 2026, and the arithmetic is simple. S3 at Kansanshi runs its first full year, Lumwana’s Super Pit construction keeps adding, and Konkola plus Mopani continue recoveries that added roughly 65,000 tonnes between them in 2025 alone. The government’s larger ambition, three million tonnes by 2031, needs Mingomba and friends, not just better years from existing pits.
Who owns Zambia’s copper mines?
A four-flag answer: Canadian and American capital through First Quantum and Barrick in the North-West, Indian capital through Vedanta at Konkola, Gulf capital through IRH at Mopani, and Chinese operators (CNMC, JCHX, Jinchuan) across the Copperbelt, with state house ZCCM-IH holding minority stakes almost everywhere. The mix shifted notably in 2024: Gulf money arrived and Vedanta returned inside twelve months.
What else does Zambia mine besides copper?
More than the export ledger suggests. Kagem in Lufwanyama district, 75 percent Gemfields and 25 percent ZCCM-IH, is the largest emerald mine in the world and supplies roughly a quarter of global production, sold through auctions that routinely clear tens of millions of dollars a sitting. Maamba in Southern Province is the country’s only large coal operation, majority held by India’s Nava, and matters less for the coal than for what sits on top of it: a 300 MW thermal power station, with a second 300 MW unit under construction. Munali, south of Lusaka, is Zambia’s nickel mine, restarted by Mabiza Resources in 2019 after two false starts under previous owners. Gold comes mostly as a by-product at Kansanshi, alongside the state’s own Kasenseli deposit in Mwinilunga.
For suppliers the non-copper mines are a different market with different buyers: gemstone operations spend heavily on security systems and sort-house technology, Maamba’s power expansion is an EPC and grid-connection project as much as a mine, and Munali’s restart model leaned on contractor mining rather than an owner fleet.
Supply Zambia’s copper expansion
AMIQ tracks the Zambian builds and recoveries with verified contacts at the owners and engineers.
Can the grid carry a million tonnes?
This is the question the expansion numbers quietly assume away. Zambia’s grid is overwhelmingly hydro, and the 2024 drought cut generation at Kariba to a fraction of capacity, pushing households to daily blackouts that stretched past twelve hours while the mines, on priority supply and imports arranged through the Copperbelt Energy Corporation, largely kept running. The million-tonne year and everything after it adds smelting and milling load to a system that has just demonstrated its weather dependence.
The response is a procurement wave of its own. Miners have been contracting renewable supply and firming capacity, Maamba’s second unit adds thermal baseload, and transmission reinforcement between the Copperbelt and the south is on the national utility’s books. Solar developers, EPC contractors, transformer and switchgear suppliers and anyone in grid-scale storage should treat Zambian mining’s power gap as a market in itself.
How will the copper get to port?
Three corridors compete for the growing tonnage. The traditional road route south through Kasumbalesa and on to Durban is congested and slow. TAZARA, the 1970s railway to Dar es Salaam, is being recapitalised under a Chinese rehabilitation agreement reported at around a billion dollars. The newest option is the Lobito Atlantic Railway through the DRC to Angola’s coast, with American development finance behind it and a planned Zambian branch line that would put the North-Western Province mines closer to an Atlantic port than they have ever been.
Each corridor is a supplier market before it is a route: track rehabilitation, rolling stock, fuel depots, border logistics, bonded warehousing and weighbridges. Logistics firms positioned on the winning corridor will carry the growth tonnage, and the corridor choice will be made mine by mine on rates and reliability, not by decree. See mining logistics and supply chain for how AMIQ covers that segment.
The risk the industry would rather forget
On 18 February 2025 a tailings dam failed at Sino-Metals Leach Zambia near Chambishi and sent roughly 50,000 cubic metres of acidic effluent into the Kafue River system, which supplies water to around 60 percent of Zambians. Kitwe’s water supply was shut, interim compensation was ordered for 454 farmers, and litigation seeking hundreds of millions of dollars is ongoing. For suppliers, the practical consequence is a tightening market for tailings engineering, water treatment and environmental monitoring across the Copperbelt: compliance spend is no longer discretionary.
Which suppliers win at which phase
Read the ten mines as a pipeline rather than a list and the procurement sequence becomes visible. Mingomba is at the study-and-early-works end: drilling contractors, geotechnical and resource consultants, environmental practitioners and camp services are the buyers’ current shopping list, with the multi-billion-dollar construction package still years out. Lumwana’s Super Pit is mid-build: bulk earthworks, heavy mobile equipment, fuel supply and construction accommodation, running through the late 2020s. Kansanshi’s S3 has crossed into operations, which shifts spend to mill liners, reagents, conveyor components and maintenance contracts, the repeatable revenue that outlasts any construction phase.
The recoveries buy differently again. Konkola’s deep sections pump extraordinary volumes of water and need dewatering capacity, shaft steelwork and ventilation before full production, while Mopani’s new ownership is spending on shaft infrastructure and winders. And after Kafue, every tailings facility on the Copperbelt faces scrutiny, which means engineering reviews, monitoring instrumentation and water treatment across a dozen sites, not one. Matching your offer to the phase is the difference between a cold call and a shortlist. A drilling contractor pitching Kansanshi today is three years late, and a mill-liner supplier pitching Mingomba is seven years early. Engineering and consulting firms and contractors each have a distinct entry point at every stage above.
Where the contracts are
Expansion capital is procurement. The S3 ramp-up, the Lumwana Super Pit build, Konkola’s rehabilitation, Mopani’s shaft investments and Mimbula’s Phase 2 each carry years of contracts for drilling, earthworks, plant, power and maintenance. AMIQ tracks 2,200+ African mining projects with verified contacts at the owners and engineers running them, Zambia’s included. The working detail sits behind an AMIQ subscription. For commodity context, see copper mining in Zambia and copper mining in Africa.
Frequently asked questions
How much copper did Zambia produce in 2025?
890,346 tonnes, up 8 percent on 2024’s 825,513 tonnes and a national record, though short of the government’s one-million-tonne target, which has been carried into 2026.
Is Konkola Copper Mines back in production?
Yes. After Vedanta regained control in July 2024, KCM produced 80,215 tonnes in 2025, a 367 percent recovery, with a stated 300,000-tonne-a-year target by 2030.
What is Zambia’s newest major copper project?
Mingomba, the KoBold Metals discovery near Chililabombwe, described as the country’s biggest copper find in a century. Development capital is estimated at 2.3 to 2.5 billion dollars, with first production targeted for the early 2030s.
What is ZCCM-IH and why does it appear in every ownership structure?
ZCCM Investments Holdings is the Zambian state’s mining investment company, the successor to the nationalised Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines. It holds minority stakes, typically around 15 to 20 percent, in most of the major mines, which gives the government a seat and a dividend in nearly every operation listed above.
Which mine produces Zambia’s emeralds?
Kagem in Lufwanyama district, 75 percent owned by Gemfields with ZCCM-IH holding the rest. It is the world’s largest emerald mine and supplies roughly a quarter of global production, sold through international auctions.
