Commodities

China Railway to Negotiate Tanzania-Zambia Line Concession

Railway to compete with US-backed plan for new line to Angola
Transport routes from Congo and Zambia copperbelts are clogged

Workers make their way to the Henderson shaft elevator at the Mufulira mine, operated by Mopani Copper Mines Plc, in Mufulira, Zambia, on Friday, May 6, 2022. A recent 1,900-mile journey from mines in Congo and Zambia shows how, a century after commercial mining began here, the world’s hunger for copper is again reshaping the region.Photographer: Zinyange Auntony/Bloomberg

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By Matthew Hill and Taonga Mitimingi

November 1, 2023 at 5:32 PM UTC

Updated on

November 2, 2023 at 7:39 AM UTC

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The Chinese government selected a state-owned company to negotiate a concession to operate a line connecting Zambia’s copper-mining heartland with the Tanzanian port of Dar es Salaam, which may require as much as $1 billion in investment.

A China Railway Construction Corp. unit has been asked to submit its proposal by the end of October, the Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority said in a statement on Wednesday. The new concessionaire — which maybe required to invest as much as $1 billion over time — should be on the ground and have taken over the operations of the railway by the end of the first quarter, Zambia Transport Minister Frank Tayali said in an interview Sept. 20.