CEC: Zambia to build $170m dam to power copper mines

Copperbelt Energy Corporation, the company that supplies electricity to Zambia’s mines, is to build a 40-megawatt hydropower plant in the country’s copper-rich northwest.

The company said it plans to start construction of the $170 million dam next year and finish in 2015. Project director Aaron Botha said the company was currently working on relocating some 500 villagers to make way for the dam in the
northwestern district of Kabompo, about 850 kilometres from the capital Lusaka.

“There are about 29 villages in three chiefdoms and the number of people is roughly about 500. The people have agreed and we have to compensate them by building better structures for them,” Botha said.