ZAMBIA Trends and Developments Contributed by: Christopher Kapambe, Kasewe Banda, Nakasamba Banda Chanda and Chamwaza Chioneni Phiri, AMW & Company Legal Practitioners
AMW & Company Legal Practitioners ZEepre Business Park
7th Floor, Alick Nkhata Road Mass Media, P.O. Box 30028 Lusaka Zambia Tel: +260 211 237957 Email: info@amwlegal.com Web: www.amwlegal.com
Arbitration as Economic Infrastructure: Zambia’s Mining Ambition and the Road to 2031 Zambia has set itself ambitious development targets. Under Vision 2030, the country aims to become a prosperous middle-income nation, while its mining policy seeks to increase annual copper production to three million tonnes by 2031. Achieving these objec - tives will require substantial expansion in productive and institutional capacity. Every tonne of additional copper and every megawatt needed to process it arrives through:
That is worth taking literally. Dispute-resolution capac - ity is priced into borrowing much as transmission capacity is priced into power. Slow, unenforceable or unpredictable awards add a premium to every pro - ject. At the scale required for 2031, that premium is a national expense. The shift to sectoral use changes the practical test. The question is no longer whether Zambia has arbitral institutions and supportive courts, but whether they can handle the disputes generated by mining, energy, construction, public procurement and infrastructure finance. Mining and the growth of sector-specific arbitration Zambian arbitration remains anchored in the Arbi - tration Act No 19 of 2000, which adopts the 1985 UNCITRAL Model Law and gives domestic effect to the New York Convention. Reform should incor - porate the 2006 revisions, including recognition and enforcement of tribunal-ordered interim measures and provide machinery for emergency relief, consolidation and joinder. Recent development has occurred chiefly through the following sector legislation: • the Minerals Regulation Commission Act No 14 of 2024, effective June 2025, created an autonomous mining regulator; • the Public Procurement Act No 8 of 2020 estab - lished the Zambia Public Procurement Authority;
• concession; • joint venture; • construction contract; • power purchase agreement; • facility agreement; or • guarantee or PPP agreement.
Each says what happens when parties disagree. The quality of those clauses will determine how much of the investment programme survives its first serious dispute. Mining sits at the centre of this network. Expanding copper production depends on agreements governing exploration, joint ventures, finance, offtake, construc - tion, electricity, transport, water, land compensation and community obligations. A dispute under one may interrupt the wider project. Zambia’s mining ambition therefore tests whether its arbitration framework can resolve complex disputes without delaying invest - ment, infrastructure and production.
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