Strengthening Zambia's position in the global critical minerals supply chain
2026
Context and Opportunity
Zambia is one of the world’s top suppliers of copper and cobalt, two minerals central to the global energy transition. Driven by the accelerating shift to electric vehicles and renewable energy, global demand for both minerals is expected to surge by 2030. To capitalise on this, the Government of Zambia has set ambitious targets to scale up copper production.
Capturing more of the value in critical minerals requires refining and processing minerals locally, but several barriers limit progress. Today, only ~20% of copper mined in Zambia is also refined within the country. Most of this value is therefore captured elsewhere, with local processing held back by ageing infrastructure, unreliable power, and logistics constraints.
Growth Gateway supported Zambia to capture more value from its critical minerals through a pipeline of investable projects and policy reform. Through extensive consultation with public and private stakeholders, including government, investors, developers, and financiers, the intervention shortlisted 9 high-potential opportunities and developed investment cases for 3 priority projects. It also ran a new Market Access Barriers analysis to identify policy reforms.
Key highlights
Investment Pipeline
£6.8B+
Latent value sized across the value chain
£500M
Investment size of priority projects
Policy & Capacity Building
9
Market Access Barriers (MABs) identified
20+
Zambian Govt. officials upskilled on investment support
TOCs
10+
Engagements across third-country partner institutions
Support Provided
Built a robust investment pipeline & directly supported 3 active projects
Mapped Zambia’s copper-cobalt project landscape & prepared priority opportunities for investor engagement
- Shortlisted 9 priority projects based on scale and FCDO/partner additionality
- Created 3 draft investment cases for midstream projects and supported Kobalani, Musamu and Kabundi to engage investors
Impact Achieved
22
Active projects mapped
Conducted MABs analysis & identified potential policy reforms
Worked with government to strengthen the policy environment for CM investment
- Ran a new MAB diagnostic, identifying barriers and proposing sequenced reforms
- Benchmarked Zambia’s draft Critical Minerals Statutory Instrument and the DRC-Zambia MFSEZ against peer countries as well as leading models to identify gaps and mitigants
9
MABs identified
Upskilled government officials on investment facilitation over 4 weeks
Built Zambian government capacity to identify, prioritise & package investment opportunities
- Delivered hands-on training for government officials over 4 weeks on investment facilitation
- Developed and demonstrated frameworks, tools and resources for investment facilitation using live case studies
20+
Zambian Government officials upskilled
Identified potential UK cooperation partnership opportunities
Mapped UK-aligned partners that can help bring investment to Zambia’s CMs
- Shortlisted priority partner countries and mapped relevant bilateral agencies and private-sector actors from each country
- Commenced direct engagements with 10+ priority partners to understand priorities and collaboration opportunities
12
Priority TCC partners identified
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