China's CCECC signs Chinese copper miners into $1.24bn TAZARA revamp

Chinese copper producers CMOC Group and Zijin Mining Group have joined a venture set up to rebuild the Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority line, taking minority stakes alongside state contractor China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC), which holds an 80% interest and a 30-year concession to run the railway. Shipping group COSCO Shipping Holdings and logistics firm Jiayou International Logistics have also taken 5% stakes each in the venture.

The $1.24 billion project will rebuild the 1,860-kilometre line running from New Kapiri Mposhi in Zambia's copperbelt to the port of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, a route originally built with Chinese assistance in the 1970s that has since fallen into disrepair. Under the deal, CCECC will carry out track, tunnel, bridge and station rehabilitation intended to lift freight capacity on the line from around 100,000 tonnes a year to 2.4 million tonnes.

Miners as investors, not just customers

The involvement of CMOC and Zijin — both major producers of Congolese and Zambian copper — as equity partners rather than simply future customers marks a shift in how Chinese mining interests are underwriting African rail infrastructure. Both companies have copper and cobalt operations on the DRC's copperbelt that could ultimately route material through a rebuilt TAZARA to Dar es Salaam, offering an alternative to the southern routes through Durban and Richards Bay.

The agreement was formalised as a public-private partnership concession in September 2025, with construction proper getting under way through 2026. At a ceremony marking the deal, Chinese Premier Li Qiang described TAZARA as "a signature project, ushering in a new era of development and prosperity for Tanzania, Zambia and China", while Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema and Tanzanian Vice-President Emmanuel Nchimbi also took part in the announcements around the revamp.

A rival to Lobito

The TAZARA revamp is widely read as Beijing's answer to the US- and EU-backed Lobito Corridor running the opposite way, through Angola to the Atlantic. Zambia, which is restructuring its sovereign debt and has limited room to take on new borrowing, is relying on the concession structure to avoid adding to government liabilities while still securing the rehabilitation its copperbelt exporters have wanted for years. Whether TAZARA can deliver the promised 24-fold jump in freight capacity within the stated three-year construction timeframe will determine if it becomes a genuine alternative export route rather than another underused rail corridor.

Sources

• Mining.com: Chinese copper miners join $1.2 billion African rail revamp, 02 Apr 2026
• Anadolu Agency: China, Zambia, Tanzania sign $1.4B agreement to modernize 5-decade-old railway line, 21 Nov 2025

Photo: A TAZARA train travelling between Lusaka and Dar es Salaam. Davidktorza, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.