Zambia has stopped sending its copperexports through South Africa, the official Times of Zambia
said.
    The newspaper yesterday quoted highly placed sources as
saying the state-owned Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines (ZCCM)
was diverting its mineral exports away from South Africa, but
it did not say which alternative routes were being used.
    ZCCM officials declined to comment on the report, but
Standwell Mapara, general manager of the Tanzania-Zambia
Railway Authority (TAZARA), told Reuters recently virtually all
Zambian mineral exports had been channelled along the TAZARA
line to Dar es Salaam for the last three months.
    During that period no Zambian copper had been shipped
through Zimbabwe to the Mozambican port of Beira - the only
other available route which avoids South Africa, Mapara said.
    Last December TAZARA carried 36,000 tonnes of Zambian
mineral ore, the line's record for any one month period, he
added.
    Copper, cobalt and other mineral exports account for 95 to
98 pct of Zambia's foreign exchange earnings and President
Kenneth Kaunda told Reuters in a recent interview it was vital
for his country to assure new outlets for them, avoiding the
traditional route through South Africa.
    Referring to Zambia's preparations for a possible cut in
economic links with South Africa, Kaunda told Reuters in an
interview on March 1, "My main concern, of course, is the mines
because whatever happens we must continue to run the mines."
    According to Mapara, TAZARA handled 1.1 mln tonnes of
freight last year and is still working well below its present
1.4 mln capacity. Kaunda said that once preparations had been
completed for evacuating Zambia's mineral exports on safe and
dependable routes his government would look to increase its
usage of TAZARA for other types of cargo.
    The 1986 annual report of Zambia's state-run Metal
Marketing Corporation said 81 pct of the country's metal
exports were channelled through Dar es Salaam last year, versus
79 pct in 1985. The report said Zambian copper production fell
to 463,000 tonnes last year from 526,000 in 1985.
    Despite the official optimism about diversifying Zambia's
export routes, diplomatic sources in Lusaka expressed
reservations about the capacity of Dar es Salaam and Beira
ports to handle all of Zambia's mineral exports, even if they
could be hauled there by train.
    "The two ports cannot in any way and in their present form
handle the huge exports of Zambian copper," one western diplomat
said.
    "A serious disruption in copper movement to the markets
could be brought about as it would pile up at the two ports
which lack the facilities and space to handle the copper
tonnage," he added.
 REUTER
