Zambia Sets Sights on 3 Million Tonnes: The Copper Opportunity Investors Cannot Ignore

Zambia is open for business — and the world is taking notice.

In a major signal of investor confidence, Zambia's Mines Minister Paul Kabuswe confirmed this week that the government is actively courting global investors to support an ambitious plan to more than triple the country's copper output to 3 million metric tonnes by 2031. The announcement, reported by Reuters and carried by Zawya, underscores just how seriously President Hichilema's administration is pursuing its vision of transforming Zambia into a global copper powerhouse.

The scale of the opportunity is extraordinary. Copper — the metal of the green economy, indispensable to electric vehicles, renewable energy infrastructure and advanced manufacturing — is in structural global demand. Zambia, Africa's second-largest copper producer, sits atop one of the world's richest deposits of it. The question is not whether Zambia's copper will power the energy transition. It is who will partner with Zambia to make it happen.

Minister Kabuswe has been clear about the government's approach: Zambia wants partners, not just investors. "It has to be a win-win situation for Zambia and for the investors," he said — a philosophy that reflects the Hichilema administration's broader commitment to deals that deliver for Zambian communities and the national economy, not just foreign balance sheets.

That approach is already attracting a world-class roster of mining firms. Barrick Gold and First Quantum Minerals from Canada, India's Vedanta Resources, the UAE's International Resources Holding, and KoBold Metals — backed by leading US investors — are all operating in Zambia today. Talks with the United States are progressing as Washington eyes Zambia as a key strategic partner in securing supply chains for critical minerals, reducing dependence on Chinese-controlled sources.

Beyond copper, Zambia's mineral wealth extends to cobalt, nickel, manganese, graphite, lithium and rare-earth elements — the full portfolio of materials that will define the industries of the next century.

This is Zambia at its most confident and most competitive. The Hichilema government has spent four years rebuilding macroeconomic stability, completing Zambia's IMF programme, and creating the conditions under which serious investors can plan for the long term. The tripling of copper output is not just a production target — it is a statement of intent from a country that has done the hard work and is ready to deliver.

Zambia is back. And the world is listening.

Read the original Reuters report via Zawya here.