Zambia Loses Main Copper Export Route

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31071, 28 May 1966, Page 17

Zambia Loses Main Copper Export Route

GV.Z P.. 4 Reuter—Copy right)

LONDON, May 27.

Landlocked Zambia’s primary copper outlet through Rhodesia to the sea was cut yesterday, forcing producers to withdraw delivery guarantees and sending the price of copper up £2B a ton on the London Metal Exchange.

Spokesmen for the two big mining companies—Roan Selection Trust and AngloAmerican Corporation —said copper was no longer being loaded for shipment to the Mozambique ports of Beira and Mozambique on the Zambian-Rhod-esia railway. This followed the imposition of a system of freight payments by the Rhodesiabased railway management which was unacceptable to the Zambian Government. In Washington, the Zambian Foreign Minister. Simon

Kapwepwe. met the Secretary of State. Mr Dean Rusk. t< seek United States support for a possible air-lift to move the vital copper exports nast the Rhodesian road-block. The Zambian Cabinet under President Kenneth Kaunda met to discuss the crisis, and officials said that a statement would be issued later. Jointly Owned Rhodesian railways are jointly owned by Zambia and Rhodesia. They are administered by a board of management composed of three Rhodesians, three Zambians and an independent chairman. Headquarters and principal workshops are in Rhodesia. A crisis first loomed after I Rhodesia's unilateral declara-

tion of independence last November. But the railways moved toward the point of break-up very recently when, with operating funds virtually exhausted, the management demanded the transfer from Zambia to Salisbury of £lm for operating costs. Zambia refused, and the board then demanded that freight charges on Zambian goods sent through Rhodesia should be paid for in advance or at destination. Again Zambia refused. The announcement that copper exports would no

longer be carried on the railways indicated that a showdown could no longer be averted.

The railways are the main outlet for the bulk of Zambia’s copper exports. The land-locked country produces about 700,000 tons a year and copper is the keystone of her economy.

Zambia now has three main alternative outlets, none as immediately usful as the Rhodesian railways. An outlet could be an air bridge with coastal centres, or the Benguela railway which links the Zambia copperbelt with the Angola port of Lobito, or a road link which it is proposed to reinforce with the Tanzanian '•anital of Dar-es-Salaam.