Zambia’s Copper Ambitions Run on Power: How CEC’s Grid Investment Is Shaping the Path to 3 Million Tonnes

Zambia’s Copper Zambia has a credible copper growth story. Whether it can execute on it depends less on ore grades than on gigawatts — and one company sits at the centre of that equation. Zambia produced fewer than 800,000 tonnes of copper in 2024, while its neighbour the Democratic Republic of Congo is already approaching 3 million tonnes per year and widening the gap. Bridging that divide is Zambia’s defining industrial ambition for this decade, with the government targeting 3 million tonnes per year by 2032 — a near-fourfold increase from current output. Achieving that target re...