BHP targets Zambia for large-scale copper exploration as it returns to Africa

BHP is preparing to launch large-scale copper exploration in Zambia, the country's mines ministry has confirmed, in a move that signals the world's biggest miner is re-engaging with a continent it has largely avoided for the past decade.

The disclosure, made after meetings in Lusaka with Campbell McCuaig, BHP's head of global generative exploration, points to renewed international competition for Zambia's underexplored deposits as copper demand surges on the back of electrification and grid investment. Zambia, Africa's second-largest producer after the Democratic Republic of Congo, is targeting a more than threefold increase in output by 2031.

McCuaig told officials that many of the world's remaining large copper deposits are either deeply buried or hidden beneath geological cover, and that BHP is now deploying advanced geological methods and large-scale data analysis to identify the mineral systems that form major orebodies. He welcomed Zambia's efforts to expand access to geoscience data, including government-backed airborne surveys and the digitisation of geological records, arguing the reforms would help attract international investment.

BHP has largely stayed out of Africa since spinning off South32 in 2015, with a brief investment in Tanzania's Kabanga Nickel project representing its only significant foray before it exited last year. Its failed 2024 bid for Anglo American collapsed partly over its reluctance to absorb Anglo's South African operations.

The company has since struck a different tone, launching a series of exploration workshops across Zambia, South Africa, Namibia and Angola running through early May, suggesting southern Africa is now firmly back on its strategic map.