Anticipated mining bonanza poses logistics challenge

How Zambia will transport three million tonnes of copper a year has emerged as one of the critical questions as the country ramps up production towards its ambitious 2031 target. With production already approaching one million tonnes annually, the scale of the logistics challenge will extend well beyond simply moving additional copper out of the country, according to Bruno Ching’andu, managing director of the Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority (TAZARA). “The three million tonnes of copper is an invitation and a challenge at the same time,” he told Freight News on the sidelines of the Land-Linked Zambia conference held earlier this year. One of the biggest concerns, he said, was that mining and transport infrastructure planning had traditionally taken place in silos. “The miners are sitting there, they see this beautiful rock and they know how to get it out of the ground. Their mindset is on mining it,” he said. “They don’t necessarily invite TAZARA or Zambia Railways to the table.” The result, he said, was that transport operators could find themselves having to respond to increased production. “When we start looking for the equipment to move these increased volumes, we don’t have it. Readiness is going to be a challenge,” he added. He said greater coordination was therefore needed now to determine what infrastructure and equipment would be required as production increased and, importantly, how these investments would be financed. The challenge is particularly significant because three million tonnes of copper production will generate freight demand far beyond the movement of the finished metal. According to Phesto Musonda, chairperson of ZCCM-IH, for every tonne of copper produced, mines require approximately three tonnes of lime as well as another tonne of sulphur, among other inputs. This means the logistics requirement associated with three million tonnes of copper production could run to between 10 million and 12 million tonnes of commodities that need to be transported into and out of the mining regions. Rail will inevitably have to carry a significant share of these volumes, raising concerns about the region’s continued over-reliance on road freight. Across southern Africa, governments and rail operators are investing heavily in rail infrastructure and rolling stock as they seek to shift more bulk cargo from road to rail. For Zambia, the anticipated growth in copper production makes that transition increasingly urgent. TAZARA itself is set for a full rehabilitation. Construction work on the new TAZARA Training Centre and a modern operations control centre in Dar es Salaam started in July this year, marking one of the first major physical developments under the TAZARA Railway Revitalisation Project. According to Musonda, it is not just physical infrastructure that has to be addressed. Customs, security and other processes will also have to operate efficiently if substantially higher freight volumes are to move seamlessly across borders. An intermodal approach will be essential, with road and rail working together rather than competing for cargo. “The opportunity is here. Whatever happens, the copper is going to have to be moved,” he said. The difficulty is ensuring investment in transport capacity takes place ahead of the anticipated increase in production rather than once the additional copper is already coming out of the ground. Financiers and investors were unlikely to simply fund infrastructure today in the expectation that Zambia would produce three million tonnes of copper in 2031, said Ching’andu. This meant capacity would probably have to be developed incrementally, said Lester Anderson, head of trade development at Standard Bank. LV