BRUSSELS, 12 November 2023 / PRN Africa / — The Zambian underground holds significant amounts of the global copper deposits. Meanwhile the road to net zero start and ends with copper, but global demand is forecasted to exceed supply. Therefore, the EU is hosting a business forum with the aim of exploring partnerships and potential collaborations between European and Zambian actors in the copper-industry.
The Delegation of the European Union to Zambia and COMESA is hosting an EU-Zambia Business Forum from the 10th – 12th of April 2024. The forum will take place in Kitwe, in the Copperbelt region of Zambia, and the purpose of the business forum will be to identify and build commercial partnerships between actors in the copper value-chain, and to explore potential areas of value-addition in the copper-sector in Zambia.
The business forum will be a two-day event followed by a field visit to operating mines and copper wire and cable manufacturers in the Copperbelt region and other industries involved in copper value addition. The event will have organized dialogue sessions on the copper value chain and opportunities within the sector. Seeing as the purpose is to create market linkages between European and Zambian companies, the program will dedicate considerable time to business-to-business matchmaking, accompanied by a limited number of panel-debates and presentations. The target audience is companies, relevant industry associations, mining operators and financial institutions from both the EU and Zambia.
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Background
The event builds on a report commissioned by the Delegation of the European Union to Zambian and COMESA investigating the opportunities for value addition in the copper sector in Zambia. This report identified a great number of untapped market opportunities and potential areas for value addition, including a current capacity for a three-fold increase in cathode production, as well as a number of circular economy opportunities such as bi-products from the production with commercial value. The contents of this report will be presented during the forum, and the identified areas of potential value-addition will serve as the centre of the different discussions.
In addition, the Forum can be seen as contribution towards the realization of a series of political agreements and strategies starting from the Global Gateway – the EU’s global strategy to boost smart, clean and secure links in digital, energy and transport sectors and to strengthen health, education and research systems across the world.
More specifically the EU-Zambian Memorandum of Understanding on a Strategic Partnership on Sustainable Raw Materials Value Chains, signed by Commissioner for International Partnerships, Jutta Urpilainen and the Zambian Minister of Finance, Situmbeko Musokotwane, on the 26th of Ocotber 2023 during the Global Gateway Forum, establishes close cooperation in five areas, one of these being the integration of sustainable raw materials value chains between the EU and Zambia, and as such, the business forum will serve towards this end.
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SOURCE European External Action