Postscript Northern Rhodesian Copper Mining

The years immediately before independence saw continued expansion on the Copperbelt. By 1963, Mufulira had established itself as the second largest underground copper mine in the world, and the Chambishi ore body was due to be developed. 1 Production, which had been cut back during 1963, was running at record levels by the time of independence. 2 Assessing the outlook for the Copperbelt, Britain’s Trade Commissioner in Salisbury noted that the management of the copper market required the copper companies to buy and stockpile large quantities of the metal, which called for substantial financial resources. Moreover, it was unclear whether world consumption of copper would rise quickly enough, even in the medium term, to create a balance between consumption and production. With the Copperbelt’s productive capacity increasing, it was possible that if managing the copper market, and maintaining current world prices, over a lengthy period proved difficult, the Northern Rhodesian economy might as a result suffer serious problems. Prophetically, the Commissioner concluded that it was ‘improbable’ that the economy would ever be sufficiently diversified, through the development of agriculture and industry, to be shielded from even a ‘modest’ recession in the mining industry. 3 These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

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