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Zaire Copper and Zinc
Zaire has traditionally been the world's fifth largest
copper
producer after Chile, the United States, Canada, and
Zambia,
accounting for about 8 percent of world copper production.
Most
copper (90 percent) is mined by the giant parastatal
Gécamines in
Shaba Region. Shaba's ores are rich in copper--from 4
percent to 6
percent, or twice the Zambian average concentration. Some
mines
produce ore with copper content as high as 15 percent. In
comparison, United States producers have been working ores
with
less than 1 percent copper. Mining officials estimated in
the late
1980s that known reserves would last for another forty
years at a
production rate of approximately 500,000 tons annually,
about 6
percent of world production.
Copper production began to fall in 1988, however.
Competition
from substitute materials as well as from lower-cost
copper
producers elsewhere in the world (such as Chile), strikes,
and
technical problems, including a cave-in in September 1990,
all
contributed to the downturn. In the early 1990s, copper
mining,
although once the mainstay of the economy, had virtually
collapsed
following years of neglect by Gécamines and as a result of
the
prevailing economic chaos. Actual production of copper ore
was
465,000 tons in 1988, declining to 440,600 tons in 1989,
then
355,500 tons in 1990. Production was 291,500 tons in 1991,
and
146,000 tons in 1992. Estimates for 1993 indicated a very
low
production figure of 80,000 tons.
About 80 percent of Zaire's copper has traditionally
been sold
to Western Europe. A substantial share of the country's
production
is shipped to Belgium for final processing by the
subsidiary of the
General Holding Company of Belgium (Société Générale de
Belgique--
SGB).
Another copper-mining company, Industrial and Mining
Development Company (Société de Développement Industriel
et Minier
de Zaïre--Sodimiza) was founded in 1969 and was owned
briefly by
Japanese interests before being taken over by the Zairian
government. The Canadian firm Philip Barrat Kaiser held a
management contract until April 1987 when the government
decided to
merge Sodimiza with Gécamines. Sodimiza had produced
between 6
percent and 10 percent of Zaire's annual copper output.
Zinc is produced as a byproduct of copper from a single
mine
near Lubumbashi. Copper output from this mine has steadily
decreased. Because zinc reserves there are substantial,
the mine is
expected to produce primarily zinc by the mid-1990s. Zinc
production totaled 64,000 tons in 1985 but had fallen to
38,200
tons by 1990. Production in 1992 was estimated to be only
18,350
tons.
Data as of December 1993
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