Copperbelt Province
Encyclopedia
Zambia
Zambia , officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west....
covers the mineral-rich Copperbelt, and farming and bush areas to the south. It was the backbone of the Northern Rhodesia
Northern Rhodesia
Northern Rhodesia was a territory in south central Africa, formed in 1911. It became independent in 1964 as Zambia.It was initially administered under charter by the British South Africa Company and formed by it in 1911 by amalgamating North-Western Rhodesia and North-Eastern Rhodesia...
n economy during British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
colonial rule and fuelled the hopes of the immediate post-independence period, but its economic importance was severely damaged by a crash in global copper prices in 1973 and the nationalization
Nationalization
Nationalisation, also spelled nationalization, is the process of taking an industry or assets into government ownership by a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to private assets, but may also mean assets owned by lower levels of government, such as municipalities, being...
of the copper mines by the government of Kenneth Kaunda
Kenneth Kaunda
Kenneth David Kaunda, known as KK, served as the first President of Zambia, from 1964 to 1991.-Early life:Kaunda was the youngest of eight children. He was born at Lubwa Mission in Chinsali, Northern Province of Northern Rhodesia, now Zambia...
. The province adjoins Katanga
Katanga Province
Katanga Province is one of the provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Between 1971 and 1997, its official name was Shaba Province. Under the new constitution, the province was to be replaced by four smaller provinces by February 2009; this did not actually take place.Katanga's regional...
province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Democratic Republic of the Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a state located in Central Africa. It is the second largest country in Africa by area and the eleventh largest in the world...
, which is similarly mineral-rich.
The main cities of the Copperbelt are Kitwe
Kitwe
Kitwe is the second largest city in terms of size and population in Zambia. With a population of 547,700 Kitwe is one of the most developed commercial and industrial areas in the nation, alongside Ndola and Lusaka...
, Ndola
Ndola
Ndola is the third largest city in Zambia, with a population of 495,000 . It is the industrial, commercial, on the Copperbelt, Zambia's copper-mining region, and capital of Copperbelt Province. It is also the commercial capital city of Zambia and has one of the three international airports, others...
, Mufulira
Mufulira
Mufulira is a town in the Copperbelt Province of Zambia. It grew up in the 1930s around the site of the Mufulira Copper Mine on its north-western edge...
, Luanshya
Luanshya
Luanshya is a town in Zambia, in the Copperbelt Province near Ndola. It has a population of 117,579 .Luanshya was founded in the early part of the 20th century after a prospector/explorer, William Collier, shot and killed a Roan Antelope on the banks of the Luanshya River, discovering a copper...
, Chingola
Chingola
Chingola is a city in Zambia's Copperbelt Province, the country's copper-mining region, with a population of 157,340 . It is the home of Nchanga Copper Mine, a deep-shaft high-grade content copper mining operation, which subsequently led to the development of two open pit operations, Chingola...
and Chililabombwe
Chililabombwe
Chililabombwe is a city located in Zambia's Copperbelt Province. The name means 'place of the croaking frog'.The main economic activity is the mining of copper....
. Roads and rail links extend north into the Congo to Lubumbashi
Lubumbashi
Lubumbashi is the second largest city in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, second only to the nation's capital Kinshasa, and the hub of the southeastern part of the country. The copper-mining city serves as the capital of the relatively prosperous Katanga Province, lying near the Zambian border...
, but the Second Congo War
Second Congo War
The Second Congo War, also known as Coltan War and the Great War of Africa, began in August 1998 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo , and officially ended in July 2003 when the Transitional Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo took power; however, hostilities continue to this...
brought economic contact between the two countries to a standstill, now recovering.
Wildlife areas
- For more detail see Copperbelt Province in the Wildlife of Zambia
There are no national parks in this most urban and industrial of Zambia's provinces. Other parks with wildlife aspects:
- Chembe Bird Sanctuary west of KitweKitweKitwe is the second largest city in terms of size and population in Zambia. With a population of 547,700 Kitwe is one of the most developed commercial and industrial areas in the nation, alongside Ndola and Lusaka...
includes crocodiles and SitatungaSitatungaThe situtunga or marshbuck is a swamp-dwelling antelope found throughout Central Africa, centering on the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cameroon and parts of Southern Sudan as well as in Ghana, Botswana, Zambia, Gabon, Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya.-Description:Situtunga stand about one and a...
as well as plentiful bird life. - Chimfunshi Wildlife Orphanage (established mainly to rescue captive non-indigenous chimpanzees).
Districts
District
Districts are a type of administrative division, in some countries managed by a local government. They vary greatly in size, spanning entire regions or counties, several municipalities, or subdivisions of municipalities.-Austria:...
s:
- ChililabombweChililabombweChililabombwe is a city located in Zambia's Copperbelt Province. The name means 'place of the croaking frog'.The main economic activity is the mining of copper....
- ChingolaChingolaChingola is a city in Zambia's Copperbelt Province, the country's copper-mining region, with a population of 157,340 . It is the home of Nchanga Copper Mine, a deep-shaft high-grade content copper mining operation, which subsequently led to the development of two open pit operations, Chingola...
- KalulushiKalulushiKalulushi is a town in the Copperbelt Province in north central Zambia. Municipal population 75,806 at the 2000 Census.It was established in 1953 as a company town for workers at the nearby Chibuluma copper and cobalt mine, and it became a public town in 1958...
- KitweKitweKitwe is the second largest city in terms of size and population in Zambia. With a population of 547,700 Kitwe is one of the most developed commercial and industrial areas in the nation, alongside Ndola and Lusaka...
- LuanshyaLuanshyaLuanshya is a town in Zambia, in the Copperbelt Province near Ndola. It has a population of 117,579 .Luanshya was founded in the early part of the 20th century after a prospector/explorer, William Collier, shot and killed a Roan Antelope on the banks of the Luanshya River, discovering a copper...
- LufwanyamaLufwanyamaLufwanyama is a small town in the Copperbelt Province of Zambia, and is headquarters of Lufwanyama District. Despite being only 60 km west of the most urban and industrialised part of the country, the mining cities of the Copperbelt, Lufwanyama is undeveloped and lacks infrastructure such as...
- MasaitiMasaiti DistrictMasaiti District is a district of Zambia, located in Copperbelt Province. The capital lies at Masaiti. As of the 2000 Zambian Census, the district had a population of 95,581 people....
- MpongweMpongwe DistrictMpongwe District is a district of Zambia, located in Copperbelt Province. The capital lies at Mpongwe. As of the 2000 Zambian Census, the district had a population of 64,371 people....
- MufuliraMufuliraMufulira is a town in the Copperbelt Province of Zambia. It grew up in the 1930s around the site of the Mufulira Copper Mine on its north-western edge...
- NdolaNdolaNdola is the third largest city in Zambia, with a population of 495,000 . It is the industrial, commercial, on the Copperbelt, Zambia's copper-mining region, and capital of Copperbelt Province. It is also the commercial capital city of Zambia and has one of the three international airports, others...
Geology
The Copperbelt region of Zambia and Congo D.R. is a 500 million year old mountain chain, the Lufilian Arc, which formed when two large pieces of continental crustContinental crust
The continental crust is the layer of igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks which form the continents and the areas of shallow seabed close to their shores, known as continental shelves. This layer is sometimes called sial due to more felsic, or granitic, bulk composition, which lies in...
, the Kalahari craton
Kalahari craton
The Kalahari craton is a craton, an old and stable part of the continental lithosphere with thick crust and deep lithospheric roots extending up to a few hundred kilometers into the Earth's mantle, that occupies a large portion of South Africa and consists of the Kaapvaal, the Zimbabwe craton, the...
and the Congo craton
Congo craton
The Congo craton, covered by the Palaeozoic-to-recent Congo basin, is an ancient Precambrian craton that with four others makes up the modern continent of Africa. These cratons were formed between about 3.6 and 2.0 billion years ago and have been tectonically stable since that time...
, collided. This collision was one of the many that happened between 700 and 500 million years ago to form the Gondwana
Gondwana
In paleogeography, Gondwana , originally Gondwanaland, was the southernmost of two supercontinents that later became parts of the Pangaea supercontinent. It existed from approximately 510 to 180 million years ago . Gondwana is believed to have sutured between ca. 570 and 510 Mya,...
supercontinent
Supercontinent
In geology, a supercontinent is a landmass comprising more than one continental core, or craton. The assembly of cratons and accreted terranes that form Eurasia qualifies as a supercontinent today.-History:...
.
This collision is thought to have remobilised base metal
Base metal
In chemistry, the term base metal is used informally to refer to a metal that oxidizes or corrodes relatively easily, and reacts variably with diluted hydrochloric acid to form hydrogen. Examples include iron, nickel, lead and zinc...
s, largely already present in the sediments that had accumulated in the basin between the two cratons. These brine
Brine
Brine is water, saturated or nearly saturated with salt .Brine is used to preserve vegetables, fruit, fish, and meat, in a process known as brining . Brine is also commonly used to age Halloumi and Feta cheeses, or for pickling foodstuffs, as a means of preserving them...
s then concentrated the base metals either along stratigraphic boundaries, or along fractures, faults
Geologic fault
In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock, across which there has been significant displacement along the fractures as a result of earth movement. Large faults within the Earth's crust result from the action of tectonic forces...
or within structurally controlled 'traps' (such as the nose of a fold). The collision also produced crustal shortening, during which the stratigraphic sequence was tectonically pushed northwards on top of the Congo Craton.
The Lufilian Arc contains two diamictite
Diamictite
Diamictite : through and µεικτός : mixed) is a poorly or non-sorted conglomerate or breccia with a wide range of clasts, up to 25% of them gravel sized...
s, megaconglomerates of glacial origin. One of those is correlated with the Sturtian
Cryogenian
The Cryogenian is a geologic period that lasted from . It forms the second geologic period of the Neoproterozoic Era, preceded by the Tonian Period and followed by the Ediacaran...
glaciation, while another correlates with the Marinoan Glaciation, both global glaciation events that had profound influence on the history of the planet.
The Lufilian Arc is correlated along trend to the west with the Damara Orogen in Namibia
Namibia
Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia , is a country in southern Africa whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. It gained independence from South Africa on 21 March...
, which also hosts large mineral deposits.