Shammah Phiri

For generations, mines were built around men, from the machinery and protective clothing to the pathways into technical leadership. That is beginning to change. Women are now operating ultra-class trucks, leading metallurgical teams and reshaping the workplace itself. The real question is whether these careers will remain exceptional or become ordinary.

As global copper demand accelerates, Zambia faces a defining opportunity: to move beyond extraction and build a deeper industrial economy around refined copper, local suppliers, technical skills and manufacturing capability. The prize is not simply more metal leaving the country, but more value staying in it.

Since copper was first struck on the Copperbelt, doing business with 'the mine' has been the dream. The money is real, the opportunities are real, but so are the standards. For Zambian businesses ready to meet them, the door has never been more open.

My first introduction to the magazine was the Pompi cover of issue 63 and while it is compelling in its own way, my personal favourite inside the magazine was an overhead image of the Kuomboka ceremony.

Mining is always dangerous. The real difference is whether that danger is managed by systems or by hope.

Global copper demand is set to surge to 40.9 million tonnes by 2040, and Zambia's mining sector is preparing for something big.

The emerging towns that may hold the blueprint for balanced national development in the decades ahead.

Zambia’s roads are finally starting to change, and in places like Kaoma and Kasempa, people are already feeling the difference as they anticipate the completion of a vital lifeline.

In the heart of southern Africa, where the Luapula River carves through ancient lands, a ceremony unfolds each July that bridges centuries. The Mutomboko, a spectacle of conquest, identity, and divine kingship, draws thousands to a small Zambian village where history refuses to remain in the past.

This isn't just another safari. At Lolelunga Private Reserve, witness a conservation miracle in the heart of Zambia. Explore 30,000 hectares of reborn wilderness where poachers have become protectors and reintroduced cheetahs roam free.

Stay in a 1970s presidential retreat overlooking South Luangwa National Park. Chichele Presidential combines Zambian history with intense, on-foot wildlife encounters and a deep commitment to conservation, offering a luxury safari that is both authentic and significant.

Only here in Zambia and eSwatini did the Ngoni people still practise Ncwala in its traditional form, a ceremony whose roots stretched back even before the birth of the legendary Shaka Zulu.

It is said to never offer a strange woman on the roadside a lift at night, no matter how distressing her circumstances, as you will be picking up a witch and are sure to meet sudden death. Where did this saying come from, and when would the deeds of the Good Samaritan go unpunished?

Human activity can sometimes be a threat to wildlife and the environment. Fortunately for the environment, various individuals and organisations continue to work tirelessly to preserve and protect some of Zambia’s most endangered animals

As dawn breaks over the Zambezi and the early cries of a fish eagle catching its first meal of the day echo across the shimmering river, a masked figure emerges amidst a cluster of vertical stone monuments.