The Zambia Development Agency (ZDA) and Rongxing Investments signed a promotion and protection of investments agreement on 22 October in Lusaka, covering a $122 million programme to expand the company’s copper processing operations at Kalulushi, in the Copperbelt.
According to the ZDA, the project will raise the company’s annual copper cathode production capacity from 5,500 to 10,000 tonnes and create 194 additional direct jobs, on top of the 506 positions recorded by the agency. The company also processes ore into concentrates.
The programme comprises $42 million already invested in two plants, $30 million being invested in a third unit and more than $50 million planned for the acquisition of mining assets and resource development, according to the ZDA.
Works set out in the impact study filed with the Zambia Environmental Management Agency require prior environmental authorisation. Rongxing’s site was subject to a temporary stop order in March 2025 after acid leaks from tailings ponds, according to Zambia Monitor.
The study covers the renovation of two leaching units and the construction of a processing facility. It puts the cost of this work at $8 million and envisages a capacity of about 18,500 tonnes a year, compared with 10,000 tonnes in the communication on the agreement. How these two figures reconcile remains to be established.
A day earlier, the Industrial Development Corporation, the Zambian state’s investment arm, signed a letter of intent with Rong Xing to jointly develop upstream mines and supply local processing. The IDC presented this step as the start of a final commitment between the parties, while indicating that the projects still had to become bankable.