Zambia’s Chamber of Mines on Thursday delivered further signs of a major global undersupply of copper about to hit the market by announcing that the country’s output of the metal could be as much as 100,000 tonnes lower than last year.
The industry lobby group attributed the expected drop in production to changes to mining taxes introduced in January, which is driving companies to cut output.
“The new tax regime forced miners to do the unthinkable – cut production – because many cannot afford to continue producing as before,” it said in a statement.
Zambia, Africa’s second largest copper producer, churned out 861,946 tonnes of the metal last year. In the first three months of this year, the nation’s copper output fell by 11.3% to 195,244 tonnes, compared to the previous quarter, the Bank of Zambia said earlier this week.
The world’s main copper producing nations have been showing output declines this year, according to the latest monthly bulletin from the International Copper Study Group (ICSG).
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