Zambia’s state investment firm, ZCCM-IH Investments Holdings, has partnered with Chinese-owned Wonderful Group to revive a near-century-old industrial-scale lime and cement facility in the critical Copperbelt region using a phased three-stage rollout.
The joint venture vehicle, Ndola Lime (2026) Limited, leverages a 55% majority stake from Wonderful Group, which is injecting $30 million—comprising a $25 million equity contribution and a $5 million shareholder loan.
ZCCM-IH will retain a 45% stake without deploying new cash, instead contributing the operating assets of Limestone Resources Limited alongside a strategic $9.8 million write-off of historic debt from the asset.
The 95-year-old Ndola Lime facility entered severe financial distress and operational insolvency in 2018, culminating in a devastating seven-year production hiatus that starved local mining and agricultural sectors of vital raw materials.
“This strategic partnership leverages private capital to recapitalize distressed state-linked industrial assets without overextending our balance sheet,” a ZCCM-IH corporate spokesperson stated on Wednesday regarding the financial turnaround.
Phase one begins immediately with the construction of a new lime production plant delivering 600 metric tons per day, targeting the region’s massive copper processing and agricultural soil conditioning markets.
Phase two mandates delivery of either a cement processing plant or a second lime plant within 12 months, followed by phase three expansion scaling capacity upward based entirely on regional demand.
This revival comes as Zambia aggressively pushes to boost annual copper production to three million metric tons, an ambitious national target requiring stable, locally sourced industrial inputs to minimize heavy import reliance.
