Originally published on LinkedIn on 17 September 2026. This work is AI-assisted - read about how I work.
Three sediment-hosted copper-cobalt orebodies sit within the Kafue Anticline at Chambishi, 28 km from Kitwe: Main, West and Southeast. Southeast alone attracted more than US$800m in development capital. Across all three phases, China Nonferrous Mining Corp Ltd invested well over US$1 billion into a mine it bought for US$20m. The geology was never the problem.
Chambishi's history is a reminder that having an orebody and being able to mine it are different things.
Copper was identified here in 1899. Roan Selection Trust held Chambishi as part of its portfolio. Development resumed in the early 1960s; the open pit began producing in 1965 and underground operations followed in 1974. The pit closed in 1978; underground mining stopped in 1987 as copper prices weakened and investment, methods and equipment all fell short.
Privatisation brought another beginning. CNMC won the 1996 bid for US$20m, its first privatised Zambian copper asset. NFC Africa Mining was incorporated in 1998, 85% CNMC and 15% ZCCM-IH. Main was rebuilt and production restored in July 2003. West followed in 2010. Southeast followed in 2018. The investment spread beyond the mine. In 2007, Presidents Hu Jintao and Levy Mwanawasa inaugurated the Chambishi cooperation zone and copper smelter; subsequent expansion lifted the smelter's capacity to 250,000 tpa. Chambishi was becoming an anchor for an industrial cluster.
Its history also contains events that cannot be written around. On 20 April 2005, an explosion at the BGRIMM explosives factory on the mine premises took many lives. It remains part of the community's history. On 18 February 2025, a tailings facility at Sino-Metals Leach Zambia, a separate CNMC-linked processor at Chambishi, failed. Contamination entered the Mwambashi Stream and Kafue River, disrupting Kitwe's water supply. Compensation was announced and remediation began; communities disputed adequacy, independent assessors found persistent contamination, and resettlement remained unresolved by August 2026. That same year, a shaft problem interrupted production at Southeast. NFCA rehabilitated the main and auxiliary shafts by December. Full production resumed on 1 January 2026.
And another opportunity remains. Southeast carries cobalt within its copper resource. Zambia's cobalt output remains a fraction of what the DRC extracts from the same geological system. Much of Chambishi's cobalt potential is unrealised.
A mine identified in 1899, delayed by depression, stopped by weak prices, rebuilt after privatisation and restored again after the disruption of 2025 is producing copper in 2026. Chambishi is not an uncomplicated success story. Its more remarkable pattern is persistence.
For more than a century, whenever the mine has stopped, somebody has found a reason to start it again.