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China on track to operate African Tazara railway as powers vie for control of mineral trade routes
- Tazara is an ailing railway line between Tanzania and Zambia, originally funded by Mao Zedong’s government in the 1970s
- Once upgraded, it will provide a key transport route for critical minerals used in the production of batteries for electric vehicles
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China has chosen China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) to negotiate a concession to operate the Tanzania-Zambia Railway line, as geopolitical tensions rise over control of trading routes for critical minerals in Africa.
CCECC, a subsidiary of the China Railway Construction Corporation, is expected to negotiate a public-private partnership concession in the form of a build-operate-transfer model with Tanzania and Zambia to operate Tazara.
It is also expected to upgrade the railway – which Chinese President Xi Jinping has called “a symbol of China-Africa friendship” – at an estimated cost of US$1 billion.
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The concession is expected to give a much-needed lifeline to the almost 50-year-old line, also known as Tazara, which was originally funded by Mao Zedong’s government as a foreign aid project.
Last month, the Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority announced the news, saying Chinese investors and CCECC were poised to play a significant role, hence the company’s proposal was “expected imminently”.
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Observers have said the funding for the railway pointed to Beijing’s keen interest in using Tazara for mining exports from Zambia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
But China is not alone – competition in the area with both the European Union and the United States is intensifying as the race for critical minerals used in the production of electric vehicle batteries heats up.
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