Copper’s new moment: Zambia looks to turn resource riches into stronger performance and lasting value

Copper has helped power technological transformation for generations, says strategic advisor Kevin Lester, and its renewed global importance puts Zambia in an increasingly significant position. With the energy transition, AI and digital infrastructure, and the global data centre rush all driving huge demand, one of humanity’s oldest mined metals has become a critical mineral shaping our future.

“Whenever copper comes into demand, it normally signals a fundamental transformation from a technology perspective that drives that demand,” says Lester. “You almost have to catch yourself thinking about what contribution a particular copper mine in a country like Zambia is making to the world.”

Lester, a South African lawyer and business advisor, spent 15 years at Anglo American, ultimately serving as General Counsel: Upstream across South Africa, Australia, Brazil, Chile, and Peru. He will bring that experience and key insights to the GC Forum Extractives Zambia later this month, including at a fireside chat.

“Nobody serious about copper is indifferent to what's happening in Zambia,” he says, noting the minerals resurrection that’s underway.

But possessing exceptional geology and converting it into mining performance are very different things, adds Lester. Zambia’s industry has travelled a difficult road through nationalisation, declining production, privatisation, and subsequent efforts to rebuild. He believes current performance, even with recent mining reforms, remains far below the country’s massive potential. “The challenge Zambia is going to face over the years ahead is really about attracting the level of investment which is required to actually bring these mines into production.”

That places Zambia’s evolving regulatory environment firmly in the spotlight.

Recent legislative and regulatory reforms have established a new Minerals Regulation Commission and Mining Appeals Tribunal as the country seeks to strengthen oversight while increasing production and attracting investment.

For Lester, regulatory certainty and predictability are fundamental to securing long-term mining capital, but the opportunity is not simply to restore or maintain Zambia’s position as a premium mining destination; instead the focus should be “to expand it and to create more capacity and more opportunity”.

Doing so also requires regulators, operators, investors and advisers to learn from one another and explore what Lester calls “the art of the possible”.

This month’s GC Forum Extractives in Zambia is an ideal opportunity to do just that.

Lester is looking forward to the one-day event, themed ‘Structuring Growth in a New Extractives Era’, where he will join Beltz Mining Managing Director Nkandu Beltz for a fireside chat “Licence to Operate | Sustainability, Communities & Long-Term Value”. The pair will explore the practical realities of building a successful mining business while balancing commercial priorities with regulation, community expectations, local participation and responsible growth.

After three decades working inside institutions where consequential decisions are made, Lester is approaching Livingstone as much to listen as to speak.

“I’m really looking forward to meeting mining lawyers in Zambia,” says Lester. “I see it as an opportunity to get to know that system and the people in it better.”

For Zambia to turn its resource riches into lasting value, Lester says it also needs to continue developing strong local capability around its mining industry. “You need permitting lawyers and ESG lawyers and construction lawyers sitting in Zambia who are able to achieve the best possible outcomes,” he says.

Events such as the first Zambian edition of the GC Forum that bring practitioners together allow them “to interact with others, to learn from others, and to kind of expand the universe from which they draw their knowledge and insight”.

With copper having repeatedly helped power various technological leaps across different eras, Zambia’s opportunity now, as a country blessed with resource riches, is to ensure this new copper era also helps power its own transformation.

For more information on the inaugural Zambia edition of the GC Forum Extractives, visit here. Attendance is complimentary for senior professionals across the mining and energy sectors, including General Counsel and in-house legal teams, leadership and compliance professionals, government and policy representatives, investors and financiers, as well as NGOs and academia. To register your interest, please click here.