ABSTRACT

The copper belt of Northern Rhodesia is limited for the main part to a narrow strip which extends from the railway at Ndola westward some two hundred miles along the frontier of the Belgian Congo. The Northern Rhodesian field lay dormant from 1913 until 1923. At that time the satisfactory price of copper and the success of the Katanga mines led to an increased interest in the deposits south of the border. By 1930, then, the copper belt of Northern Rhodesia was in the midst of a construction boom. In July 1932 the price fell below £25 per ton, and no mine could cover its costs and meet its financial obligations. In circumstances survival depended upon the husbanding of financial resources. In December 1932 a further conference of copper producers was held in New York. The actual number of men required to operate even a large copper-mine is comparatively small once construction is completed.