Zambia to Start Trading Its Own Copper, Competing With Glencore
- Country says trading the metal will boost pricing transparency
- Government could receive copper instead of mining royalties
Copper plates ready for shipping at the Mufulira refinery in Mufulira, Zambia.
Photographer: Zinyange Auntony/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Zambia plans to directly buy and sell a portion of the copper produced in the southern African nation, competing with trading giants including Mercuria Energy Group Ltd. and Glencore Plc.
“We obviously want to do it in a way that’s fair, that’s commercially suitable for the mining companies,” Jito Kayumba, President Hakainde Hichilema’s senior economic adviser, said in an interview on Monday. “To say that we can come as a commercial player to compete with the other commodity traders, to make financing available for the mines for us to have a fair share of the resource.”