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Events/Nationalisation · 1969

Zambia takes 51 percent of the copper mines

Nationalisation, 1969, completed 1970, Zambia.

What happened

After the Mulungushi reforms of April 1968, Zambia took a 51 percent stake in the two main copper groups, Roan Selection Trust and Rhodesian Anglo American, in 1969. ZCCM-IH gives completion dates of 26 June 1970 (Anglo American group) and 16 August 1970 (RST).1,2,3

Why it matters

The state became the main owner of the Copperbelt for the next 30 years.1,2,3

Story cards

Around the same time

  1. Katanga declares its secession from Congo

    The copper-rich province broke away as an unrecognised state (Wikidata date).4

  2. Rhodesia's UDI cuts Zambia's copper routes

    Zambia faced a transport emergency and sought a route to the sea through Tanzania.5,6

  3. Copper is 97 per cent of Zambias foreign exchange earnings

    The dependence made a safe export route a political priority.5,6

  4. Chile nationalises large copper mining

    It put Chile's copper under state control.7,8,9,10

  5. Erdenet mining company: Wikidata inception date

    The Mongolian copper company is dated to 1974 in Wikidata.11

  6. Olympic Dam drill hole RD1

    It led to the Olympic Dam copper-uranium-gold deposit.12,13

  7. Escondida porphyry copper found

    Escondida became the largest copper mine in the world.14,15

  8. Privatisation of ZCCM weakens TAZARA's copper traffic

    More copper then went by road along southern routes and the Tanzam highway.5,16

Open the full timeline

Where next

People

Led byKenneth KaundaHe announced the takeover of Anglo American and Roan copper.17

Events

Led toZambia Consolidated Copper Mines formedZCCM was formed on 25 March 1982 from the two state-controlled copper companies.2

Trade routes

ExamplesZambian copper via TAZARA to Dar es SalaamCopper was 97 per cent of Zambia's foreign exchange when it needed a route to the sea.5

Sources

  1. Nationalization and Mining: Lessons from Zambia (abstract) OneMine
  2. About ZCCM-IH (history) ZCCM Investments Holdings
  3. Copperbelt Province (item Q1131523), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  4. Wikidata item Q1148907 (State of Katanga)
  5. 'Win-win' contested: negotiating the privatisation of Africa's Freedom Railway with the 'Chinese of today' Journal of Modern African Studies 59(1) (Cambridge University Press)
  6. Wikidata item Q985822 (Kapiri Mposhi)
  7. Allende and the nationalisation of Chilean copper (milestone essay) US Department of State, Office of the Historian
  8. Annual Report 2011, History Codelco
  9. Chile: Salvador Allende's leftist regime, 1970-73 US Library of Congress Federal Research Division (via countrystudies.us)
  10. Santiago (item Q2887), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  11. Wikidata item Q933606 (Erdenet Mining Corporation)
  12. Report GA9508 (Olympic Dam, drill hole RD1 text) Geoscience Australia
  13. Olympic Dam mine (item Q1473809), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  14. La genesis de Escondida: el hallazgo que transformo la mineria chilena (opinion column by a participant) Guia Minera de Chile
  15. Escondida Mine (item Q14995147), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  16. Wikidata item Q239580 (Kitwe)
  17. Kaunda announces nationalisation of copper mines South African History Online

Pictures on this page: Kenneth David Kaunda.jpg, Unknown photographer (Public domain).

From the Prospector Trails mining history dataset: each fact links to the source it was checked against. Figures are as the source gives them, in the money of their day. Not investment advice.

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Cover photos from Wikimedia Commons: Malachite on cobaltocalcite, Musonoi by Ji-Elle, CC BY-SA 3.0; Crushers by photosmith2011, Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0; Ball mills and SAG mills by photosmith2011, Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0. Pictures: Kopermijn te Kolwezi in de provincie Shaba (Katanka), Mieremet, Rob / Anefo / Europeana (Public Domain Mark 1.0).