Anglo American explores for copper, cobalt in Zambia

“Zambia’s mining sector appears to be on track for renewed activity – and that is good for Zambia and African mining,” Wanblad told delegates at the African Mining Indaba in Cape Town.

“I am pleased that we are progressing with early-stage exploration in Zambia’s North-Western Province to identify potential copper and cobalt opportunities.”

However, Wanblad also said much more needed to be done to make a compelling argument for Africa given intense global competition.

“We sometimes forget this simple truth: mining jurisdictions across the world are competing for every dollar of investment. Capital is highly mobile and, increasingly, as we are all seeing, the best capital will go to those countries that are set on making themselves competitive for the long term.”

Anglo American aims to cut capital expenditure by $1.8 billion by 2026, as it grapples with a fall in demand for most of the metals it mines and a writedown for its British fertilizer project.

The company joined peers, including Rio Tinto, Teck Resources and Glencore, in reporting lower profits and returns in the first half of the year, as reduced economic growth hit commodity prices.