LocationsHow the ACP-EU Development Minerals Programme is Putting Zambia’s Minerals in Zambia’s Hands
From the Cutting Table to the World
May 29, 2026
From cutting gemstones in Kitwe to supplying silica to Mopani Copper Mines, two ACP-EU Development Minerals Programme success stories show what's possible when Zambia's artisanal miners get the right support.
Images by: Vanessa Wematu Akibate/UNDP Zambia
The first time Silvia Phiri held a rough gemstone and understood what it could become, something shifted. She had just finished high school and started a geology course at university, having long been fascinated by nature and the beautiful treasures it produces — amethysts, citrines, stones that carry the earth's history in their colour. So, when she was selected to travel to Kabwe for a training programme, it felt natural. It was a chance to discover how that fascination could become something more, something that could build a livelihood.
The training was part of the ACP-EU Development Minerals Programme, a UNDP-led initiative financed by the European Union and the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States. For Silvia, its impact was deeply felt and has shaped how she approaches her craft ever since.
Over the course of the programme, she learned to identify gemstones, sort them, cut them, and add value to rough material that would otherwise leave Zambia unprocessed. Most critically, she learned business management and what she was worth.
By the time she stood at a stall at CAMINEX back in 2025, then a 28-year-old trained gemologist and professional gemstone cutter running her own business, she had turned that single training into her sole source of income, earning around ZMW 10,000 a month crafting finished products from Zambian stones. "When we went for that workshop," she said, reflecting on the years since, "it built my confidence and capacity. But it has also exposed me to many clients and opportunities."
Silvia Phiri — turning Zambian gemstones into a thriving business, one cut at a time.
Images by: Vanessa Wematu Akibate/UNDP Zambia
Silvia is not done. She has already run stalls in major malls across Kitwe, and is now working towards opening a permanent shop in the city as a first step, before building her own chain of stores stocked with Zambian minerals, mined by Zambians, cut by Zambians and sold to the world. She currently works with a locally fabricated cutting and polishing machine, and is actively seeking investment to expand her capabilities and grow her business. "Minerals are quite valuable," she says, with the quiet certainty of someone who has held that value in her hands. "We just need to know how to handle it."
A year later, CAMINEX returns to Kitwe and so does the ACP-EU Development Minerals Programme, this time with a different kind of story, told at a different scale.
The Zimba Cooperative is women-led cooperative of over 400 members who, through the Programme's collaboration with the UNDP-led Supplier Development Programme, have done something that once seemed out of reach for small-scale operators. Before the programme's support and despite possessing real mining knowledge and access to silica deposits, the cooperative operated entirely without mining rights, formal governance structures, or market contracts, leaving members dependent on informal buyers and the unpredictable prices that came with them. Since receiving support through capacity building and concrete market linkages, they now own a license to aggregate and supply silica directly to Mopani Copper Mines. They have already fulfilled two purchase orders and are gearing for more.
This is a testament to what ASM operators can achieve when properly supported, as they play a key role in providing the local supply chain with globally competitive local content, and take their rightful place as integral parts of the broader economy.
The Zimba Cooperative works with a different mineral, as a collective rather than an individual. But the logic is the same one that sent Silvia to Kitwe with a selection letter and an open mind. Their growth trajectory shows that artisanal and small-scale miners in Zambia have something real to offer, and what they need is the structure, the support — policy or otherwise — and the connections to make it visible.
This is what the ACP-EU Development Minerals Programme has been building consistently since 2015. So far, over 300 ASM cooperatives have been formed, with more than 160 granted mining rights. Over 5,000 artisanal miners have also been sensitized on formalisation across nine districts, with women making up nearly half of all training participants. The 300-member Association of Zambian Women in Mining was reformed and re-energised, and are shaping the sector to be a more inclusive space.
At CAMINEX 2026, the Programme took another step forward, participated in hosting and convening a high-level dialogue on local content and formalisation. The Zimba Cooperative was present, alongside three other programme-supported ASM cooperatives, demonstrating in real time what structured linkages between small and large-scale mining can look like. As Zambia positions itself to benefit from the Lobito Corridor initiative, which aims to transform regional mineral value chains, the experience that the Zimba Cooperative offers a practical blueprint for how formalised, locally rooted ASM operations can plug into regional and global supply chains, delivering export efficiency, enhancing livelihoods, strengthening local value addition, and promoting social inclusion.
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