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.
Vedanta Resources launched CopperTech Metals, a US-domiciled company to own and operate Zambia's Konkola Copper Mines, on 7 November 2025, alongside plans for a $1.5bn investment and an 11.9% stake sale worth about $372m.
Ivanhoe Mines' third-quarter profit fell to $31m, down two-thirds year-on-year, as seismic-related flooding continued to depress copper output at Kamoa-Kakula.
Harmony Gold finalised its US$1.01bn acquisition of MAC Copper on 24 October 2025, taking full ownership of the CSA copper mine in New South Wales and adding copper to its production mix for the first time at scale.
The International Copper Study Group forecast a 2025 surplus giving way to a 150,000-tonne deficit in 2026, a call that anticipated the tight market later blamed for record prices.
Ivanhoe Mines reported record quarterly zinc output at Kipushi and copper production in line with guidance at Kamoa-Kakula, as recovery from May's flooding gathered pace.
Glencore began exploring the sale of a majority stake in its Kamoto Copper Company operation in the DRC, holding talks with Orion Resource Partners amid the prolonged cobalt export suspension.
Ivanhoe Mines began the second stage of dewatering at its flooded Kakula copper mine in the DRC, aiming to cut the underground water level by roughly a metre a day.
