Zambian power utility says mining growth needs 10GW and $12bn by 2030

Zambian power transmission and generation company Copperbelt Energy Corporation (CEC) says the country's mining industry will require close to 10 gigawatts of new generation capacity and nearly $12 billion in energy-sector investment by 2030 if Zambia is to meet its target of three million tonnes of annual copper production by 2031. CEC managing director Owen Silavwe made the estimate at the Zambia Country Showcase during the Investing in African Mining Indaba in Cape Town in February 2026.

"If we are to support the mining sector's ambition of producing three million metric tonnes of copper annually by 2031, we must accelerate the development of energy infrastructure," Silavwe said, arguing that reliable, scalable and diversified power supply — not just mineral reserves or metallurgical capacity — will determine whether Zambia's copper ambitions are realistic.

CEC's own role in the build-out

CEC, which transmits, generates, distributes and trades power for mining customers on the Zambian and DRC copperbelts, said it is itself developing more than 250MW of renewable-energy capacity and working to strengthen cross-border transmission links through its participation in the Southern African Power Pool. Silavwe framed Zambia's recent power supply difficulties, including the severe drought-driven shortages of 2023-24, as "a catalyst to reimagine and accelerate Zambia's energy future" rather than simply a crisis to be endured.

A big number against a moving target

The 10GW and $12 billion figures are CEC's own estimates rather than an official government requirement, but they illustrate the scale of the challenge facing Zambia's power sector as mining output climbs. Zambia produced a record 890,346 tonnes of copper in 2025, still short of the government's own one-million-tonne target for 2026, and reaching three million tonnes by 2031 would require both substantially more mine output and enough new generation to run expanded processing and smelting capacity. With ZESCO, CEC, Maamba Energy and a growing list of independent power producers all adding capacity, and mines themselves — from First Quantum to Vedanta's Konkola Copper Mines — investing directly in their own power projects, Zambia's energy build-out is proceeding on multiple fronts, but Silavwe's numbers suggest it will need to move considerably faster to keep pace with mining ambitions.

Sources

• CEC: CEC Urges Accelerated Energy Sector Development To Unlock Zambia's Mining Ambitions, 11 Feb 2026

Photo: Nchanga copper mine near Chingola, Zambia, on the copperbelt driving the country's growing electricity demand. BlueSalo, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.