Solwezi is a town in

Zambia Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most central point. Its neighbours are t ...

. It is the provincial capital of the mineral-rich North-Western Province. Solwezi is also the administrative capital of Solwezi District, one of the eleven districts in the North-Western Province.

Location

Solwezi is located on the Chingola–Solwezi–Mwinilunga Road ( T5 Road of Zambia), approximately north-west of

Chingola Chingola is a city in Zambia's Copperbelt Province, the country's copper-mining region, with a population of 216,626 (2010 census). It is the home of Nchanga Copper Mine, a deep-shaft high-grade content copper mining operation, which subsequent ...

and approximately south-east of

Mwinilunga Mwinilunga is a town in the North-Western Province of Zambia. It is the headquarters of Mwinilunga District, one of the province's eleven districts. Location The town lies on the west bank of the ''West Lunga River'', along the Chingola–Sol ...

, in the extreme northwest of the country. The geographical coordinates of the city are:12°08'36.0"S, 26°23'09.0"E (Latitude:-12.143333; Longitude:26.385833). Solwezi sits at an average elevation of above

mean sea level There are several kinds of mean in mathematics, especially in statistics. Each mean serves to summarize a given group of data, often to better understand the overall value ( magnitude and sign) of a given data set. For a data set, the '' ...

. Approximately south of the central business district, is the "Kifubwa Rock Stream Shelter", also ''Kifubwa Rock National Monument''. It is located next to the Kifubwa River, with inscriptions dating from the

Paleolithic The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic (), also called the Old Stone Age (from Greek: παλαιός '' palaios'', "old" and λίθος ''lithos'', "stone"), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone too ...

period, carbon dated to about 6300 BC. The conservation area measures approximately with the Kifubwa Stream Cave at its centre.

Population

In 1990, the population of Solwezi was 23,435 people. In 2000, there were 38,121 people. The 2010 population census and household survey enumerated the population of the town at 90,856 inhabitants.

Economy

Solwezi is a mining town. As of 2015, the town was still developing, with infrastructure development running behind the swelling population. At that time, only the main street, ''Independence Road'' was named. Many of the other streets were un-named and unpaved.

Copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pink ...

is the main mineral extracted although

cobalt Cobalt is a chemical element with the symbol Co and atomic number 27. As with nickel, cobalt is found in the Earth's crust only in a chemically combined form, save for small deposits found in alloys of natural meteoric iron. The free element, p ...

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile ...

and

uranium Uranium is a chemical element with the symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Uranium is weak ...

is also mined in the area. The adjacent Kalumbila District hosts Lumwana Mine, located about west of Solwezi; and

Kalumbila Mine Kalumbila Mine is a copper mine in Kalumbila District, North-Western Province, Zambia (west of Solwezi). It was formed in 2010 and is one of the four copper mines in Zambia. As of 2018, it was the fourth largest mining employer in Zambia with ...

, located about west of Solwezi, and run by

Barrick Gold Barrick Gold Corporation is a mining company that produces gold and copper with 16 operating sites in 13 countries. It is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It has mining operations in Argentina, Canada, Chile, Côte d'Ivoire, Democra ...

. Kalumbila is operated by

First Quantum Minerals First Quantum Minerals is a Canadian-based mining and metals company whose principal activities include mineral exploration, development and mining. Its main product is copper, which accounts for 80% of revenues as of 2016. First Quantum's com ...

. The deposits at Lumwana were discovered in 1961, but no serious work was carried out there until Equinox Minerals Limited became involved in 1999.

Uranium Uranium is a chemical element with the symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Uranium is weak ...

is also mined in Kalumbila District at the Lumwana mine. The main industry of Solwezi District is

copper mining Copper extraction refers to the methods used to obtain copper from its ores. The conversion of copper consists of a series of physical and electrochemical processes. Methods have evolved and vary with country depending on the ore source, loca ...

at Kansanshi Mine (located about north) run by

. Kansanshi Mine exploits copper-gold ore. The mining site has intermittently been running since the early 20th century for copper and

Tribes

Kaonde is the largest tribe represented in Solwezi, in addition to large numbers of Lunda and Luvale speaking people. The Kaonde is a tribe that, like the Lunda people, are descendants of the Luba-Lunda Empire of Congo. They were among the first Zambians to do mining of copper in Zambia as suggested by archaeological evidence at the Kansanshi Mine in Solwezi that dates back to the

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly ...

. The Kaonde tribe falls under one of the main tribes of Zambia, among the Lozi, the Bemba, the Ngoni, the Tonga and the Luvale. The Kaonde tribe has about 300,000 people in Zambia and about 30,000 people in Southern

DRC The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

Transportation

Solwezi is situated on the T5 Motorway, which connects the

Copperbelt Province Copperbelt Province is a province in Zambia which covers the mineral-rich Copperbelt, and farming and bush areas to the south. It was the backbone of the Northern Rhodesian economy during British colonial rule and fuelled the hopes of the imme ...

with

Angola , national_anthem = "Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordinat ...

. Most people walk or drive around the town to get to and from different places. The

Solwezi Airport Solwezi Airport is an airport serving Solwezi, a city in the North-Western Province of Zambia. The airport is the largest in the province and was upgraded by Kansanshi Mining PLC with the addition of a new runway able to handle the Boeing 737. ...

is an airport near the T5 motorway.

References

External links

Zambian 2006 to 2010 Constituency and Ward Boundaries
{{Authority control Solwezi District Provincial capitals in Zambia Populated places in North-Western Province, Zambia