Zambia Lures Vale, Vedanta in $6 Billion Copper-Mine Expansion

Zambia, Africa’s largest copper- mining nation, is set to enter the world’s top five producers as Vale SA, First Quantum Minerals Ltd. and Vedanta Resources Plc lead more than $6 billion of investment in the country’s mines.

“If all the planned projects take off, Zambia is expected to overtake Australia and Indonesia to become the fifth-largest copper-producing country in the world by 2013,” Sophie Chung, an analyst at Wood Mackenzie unit Brook Hunt, said yesterday in an e-mail. The country’s “positive” investment climate sets it apart from its neighbors, Brook Hunt said in a separate note.