Ivanhoe Mines' Kamoa-Kakula smelter produced 63,671 tonnes of copper anode in the first quarter of 2026, about 60% of design capacity, and sent its first shipment to Europe via the Lobito Corridor.
Flooding in western Angola suspended rail traffic on the Lobito Corridor, disrupting a key export route for copper and cobalt from the DRC to the Atlantic port of Lobito.
JPMorgan forecast a 2026 refined copper deficit of about 330,000 tonnes and an average price near $12,075 a tonne, while raising its long-term forecast to $12,000 a tonne.
Chinese copper producers CMOC and Zijin have taken equity stakes in the venture rebuilding TAZARA, the railway linking Zambia's copperbelt to Dar es Salaam, under a $1.24bn, 30-year concession.
Ivanhoe Mines made its first copper export via the Lobito Corridor, shipping high-purity anodes from its new Kamoa-Kakula smelter to Germany's Aurubis for low-carbon refining.
An investigation linked pollution and community health risks near CMOC's Tenke Fungurume copper-cobalt mine to cobalt entering the supply chains of major automakers.
Ivanhoe Mines' Robert Friedland warned that African copper production faces serious disruption if the Iran conflict persists, given the region's reliance on Middle Eastern sulphur for acid production.
Flooding brought down the Kakoso bridge on the Zambian road to Kasumbalesa, cutting off a route that carries roughly a third of the DRC's copper cathode exports and forcing trucks onto detours.
Eurasian Resources Group's Metalkol tailings-reprocessing operation in the DRC became the first such site globally to be awarded the Copper Mark responsible-sourcing certification.
DRC president Felix Tshisekedi replaced the chairman and CEO of state mining company Gécamines, which holds stakes in copper and cobalt operations run by Glencore, CMOC and ERG.
Gécamines secured rights to market about half of the copper produced at Glencore's Kamoto Copper Company, extending a trading strategy it has used elsewhere in the DRC.
Glencore and Gécamines finalised a land-access deal at Kamoto Copper Company that the miner says paves the way to 300,000 tonnes a year of copper output.
Copperbelt Energy Corporation says Zambia's mining sector will need close to 10GW of new generation and nearly $12bn in investment by 2030 to meet a target of three million tonnes of copper a year.
The DRC's copper exports rose almost 10% in 2025 to 3.4 million tonnes, with Chinese-run mines including Tenke Fungurume and Kamoa-Kakula driving the increase.
MMG has broken ground on a $900 million expansion of its Khoemacau copper mine in Botswana, aiming to lift annual output to 130,000 tonnes of copper.
Glencore signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding on 3 February 2026 with the US-backed Orion Critical Mineral Consortium covering a proposed 40% stake in its Mutanda and Kamoto copper-cobalt mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Zambia produced 890,346t of copper in 2025, up 8% on 2024, the mines ministry said, leaving the country about 110,000t short of its 1Mt target for the year.
The DRC dispatched its first copper shipment to the US under a Gécamines-Mercuria arrangement, marketing metal from the state miner's stake in CMOC's Tenke Fungurume operation.
Ivanhoe Mines began copper anode production at its new Kamoa-Kakula smelter in the DRC, a plant it says will be Africa's largest once fully ramped up.
The US International Development Finance Corporation signed a $553m loan on 17 December 2025 as part of a $753m package, with the Development Bank of Southern Africa, to rehabilitate Angola's Benguela railway and Lobito port for Copperbelt exports.
Glencore unveiled a $14bn-$24bn global copper growth plan that includes higher output targets for its Kamoto Copper Company and Mutanda operations in the DRC.
Ivanhoe Mines said 2026 copper output at Kamoa-Kakula would fall short of 2024's record, even as dewatering of the flooded Kakula mine passed the halfway mark.
Ivanhoe Mines officially fired up what it calls Africa's largest and greenest copper smelter at Kamoa-Kakula, with first concentrate feed expected by the end of the year.
Ivanhoe Mines says hydropower delivery from the refurbished Inga II dam to its Kamoa-Kakula copper complex is set to rise from 50MW to 100MW in the first quarter of 2026, under a long-term deal with DRC utility SNEL.
