JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Copper originating in the copperbelt of Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was likely to become more competitive as the North-South Corridor came on line, said Southern African Development Community (SADC) director of infrastructure Remmy Makumba on Tuesday.

The North-South Corridor project is an initiative being launched by Africa’s main regional organisations, the SADC, the East African Community, and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) to create a reliable and efficient transport network along the two main trading routes.

Faster border crossings and improved railways and highways will improve the access of producers, especially in landlocked countries, to regional and international markets, stimulating economic growth and investment.

The first route would run between South Africa’s Durban port and the copperbelt area of the DRC and Zambia, with the second route running from the copperbelt to the Tanzanian port of Dar es Salaam.

Eight countries would be involved in the project, namely South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania, the DRC, Malawi, Botswana and Mozambique.

Makumba noted that using the corridor would provide miners in the region with a much faster option for moving ore, particularly to the port of Dar es Salaam and Durban.

“There will also be reduced costs, especially when the border crossings between the countries have been eased, and this would enable the mining houses in Africa to be more competitive in the world markets.”

Makumba noted that it was now the perfect time to optimise the cost of transporting copper ore, as the price of the metal was experiencing a downward cycle.

Currently, transporting a single cargo of copper from the DRC copperbelt to the southern ports or to Dar es Salaam could take up to two to three weeks, where in Europe the same distance could take only 48 hours. With the new North-South Corridor, this border crossing time could be cut in half.

It was estimated that the lost income in terms of interest alone on a trainload of copper was about $16 000 for every week of delay.

Another benefit being offered by the proposed corridor would be an increase in generated electricity. Currently, a serious shortage of power in East and Southern Africa was constraining economic growth.

The North-South Corridor would see an additional 35 GW of generated electricity being added to the grid of the eight countries involved.

Individual countries would be responsible for producing this generating capacity as well as upgrading and maintaining the infrastructure already in place.