On Wednesday, President Hakainde Hichilema officially started the shaft sinking project at Mingomba Mine in Chililabombwe. His government is calling this a historic moment in the country’s decades-long effort to regain its status as a global copper powerhouse.
A 1.7-kilometer shaft is the main part of the project. It is an amazing piece of industrial engineering that will drill deep into high-grade copper and cobalt deposits. KoBold Metals, which is backed by Silicon Valley, and ZCCM-IH, which is the state investment arm, worked together to create this project. It is the largest investment of American money in Zambia’s mining sector, at an incredible US$430 million, and work on it began in 2022.
As it stands now, KoBold Metals owns 80% of the deal and ZCCM-IH owns 20%. However, that number may not stay the same for long. Phesto Musonda, the chairperson of the ZCCM-IH Board, said on the sidelines that the state-owned company wants to raise its stake to 25 percent. This would give Zambia a bigger stake in one of the continent’s most watched mining projects.
President Hichilema, wearing safety gear and surrounded by investors and officials, toured the large site, talking to workers on the ground before sitting down with a group of American investors led by U.S. Michael Gonzales, the U.S. ambassador to Zambia, met with the President. This meeting showed how diplomatic the deal is, which started with the President’s own trip to Washington.
Hichilema spoke at the site and said that the Mingomba project was proof of concept for his administration’s pitch to the world that it is friendly to investors.
He said that “projects like this one are at the heart of the country’s goal to increase copper production while making sure that nearby communities benefit through job creation and economic activity.” He linked the investment directly to his government’s main goal of producing three million metric tonnes of copper by 2031.
The President went even further and talked about what he called a “new frontier” in Zambian mining: artificial intelligence. Hichilema said that AI is already being used in Mingomba’s operations. He urged other mining companies in the area to do the same and called for the country’s local content policy to be put into place more quickly so that Zambian businesses and workers can get a fair share of the sector’s growth.
That growth is already clear on the ground. KoBold Africa’s CEO, Mfikeyi Makayi, said that the project’s workforce has grown to 600 people, even though full-scale operations haven’t even started yet. Makayi said that the company’s main goal in Zambia is clear: hire Zambians, find world-class deposits, and build the next generation of mines.
Ambassador Gonzales agreed with this point of view, saying that the investment’s value goes far beyond just getting copper. He pointed to the jobs created, the skills learned, and the positive effects on local businesses in Copperbelt communities that have been hurt by the mining sector’s decline for years.
The Minister of Copperbelt Province, Elisha Matambo, was less careful in his assessment, saying that the project was clear proof of renewed investor confidence under the ruling UPND administration. The government will probably repeat this as the 2026 election cycle gets closer.
But for now, the shaft goes down, and Zambia’s copper plans, at least at Mingomba, are only going in one direction.
