Zambia’s copper output dips in second quarter, putting 2025 target at risk

Zambia’s copper output dipped in the second quarter, official data showed on Thursday, putting a target of boosting production to 1 million metric tons this year at risk.

President Hakainde Hichilema’s government has been trying to lift copper output as part of efforts to get Zambia’s economy back on track after a protracted debt crisis.

The Southern African country is Africa’s second-biggest copper producer.

It reported output of roughly 224,000 tons in the first quarter of 2025.

Mines Minister Paul Kabuswe told a press conference that copper output in the first six months of the year was 439,644 tons.

He declined to give a second-quarter production figure. Assuming no revisions to first-quarter output, second-quarter production was about 215,644 tons, down about 4% quarter on quarter.

Kabuswe said second-quarter output had been dampened by issues at four producers: Sino Metals Leach, First Quantum Minerals (FQM), Mimbula and Sino Xinyuan.

The Sino Metals Leach plant was shuttered because of an acid spill following the failure of a tailings dam.

Zambia produced about 820,000 tons of copper last year and is on track to exceed that, as its first-half output was up about 18% year on year.

But it would need to raise output by about 27% in the second half of the year if it is to hit the government goal of 1 million tons this year.

Analysts say the expansion of FQM’s Kansanshi mine could help boost output in the second half, but an increase of more than 20% could be a stretch.

(By Chris Mfula, Sfundo Parakozov and Anathi Madubela; Editing by Alexander Winning and Mark Heinrich)