The Lobito Corridor megaproject, which connects three African countries, is moving from a project stage to a testing ground in the global race for strategic minerals.
Connecting Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia, it has been presented as the West's response to Chinese domination in the African mining sector. Supported by more than $2.7 billion in promised investments, the corridor is intended to transport copper and cobalt, essential to the energy transition. For now, there is still one project in progress.
The project aims to develop railway infrastructure to transport large quantities of minerals mined in southern DRC and northern Zambia to the Angolan port of Lobito on the Atlantic Ocean for shipment to global markets. The governments concerned and the European Union, the main foreign funder of the project, also want the corridor to stimulate regional development through agricultural projects, logistics hubs and workforce training. The backbone of the corridor is the historic Benguela railway line, which runs west-east from Lobito to the Congolese border. Much of the line was destroyed during the Angolan civil war from 1975 to 2002, then rebuilt by a Chinese company until 2019.Three years later, a European consortium –Lobito Atlantic Railway, or LAR– won a 30-year concession to operate the line, transport minerals and manage the Lobito mineral terminal.
The Angolan rail network is already connected to a line serving the mineral-rich province of Lualaba in the DRC, and is expected to eventually extend to Haut-Katanga and northern Zambia.
United States, Europe and China
For years, the Lobito Corridor has been touted as America's largest infrastructure investment in Africa. A US government agency, the Development Finance Corporation, provided a loan of approximately $550 million to LAR to modernize the railway and expand mineral transportation. Washington's enthusiasm culminated in President Joe Biden's visit to Lobito in late 2024, a first for Angola since Barack Obama's in 2015. Donald Trump's return to the White House has darkened the picture. If he openly coveted strategic minerals, he also favored bilateral agreements to the detriment of major multilateral projects. Europe has firmly taken the lead. Through the EU, its Member States, the European Bank ofinvestment and private companies, it has committed around 2 billion euros ($2.3 billion) to the project.
A little more than a third corresponds to direct development aid, EU Ambassador to Angola Rosario Bento Pais told AFP in Luanda. " We don't want it to just be a transportation corridor. We want it to be an economic development corridor that precisely encompasses the entire development of the local economy and populationsshe declared. Although China has lost its concession, Chinese mining companies are already using the corridor to transport copper, LAR chief executive Nicholas Fournier said. In late 2025, China signed a $1.4 billion deal with Zambia and Tanzania to rehabilitate another line, the 1,800-kilometer (1,120-mile) Tazara Railway, ensuring access to long term to an Indian Ocean port for its mineral imports.
Why Lobito?
Lobito, a port city of around 200,000 inhabitants located some 500 kilometers south of Luanda, Angola's capital, lies at the western end of the Benguela Line. Its bay is home to a commercial port, oil and gas terminals as well as the mineral port. Naturally sheltered, it allows maritime transport all year round. Port capacity far exceeds current traffic, significantly reducing ship wait times and costs for exporters.
Zambia, Africa's second largest copper producer, remains the missing link in the corridor. A former railway line connects the mining belt in the north of the country to Lubumbashi and Kolwezi in the DRC, but it requires a complete renovation, a project estimated at $4 billion and 10 to 15 years of work. Zambia "stay very interested", said Mr. Pais, but "the United States is no longer in the game, at least for now". Working with partners such as the African Development Bank and Italy, the EU is exploring another option: upgrading a road linking northern Zambia to the Angolan city of Luacano, where minerals could be loaded on trains to Lobito.
A newly created intergovernmental agency has yet to demonstrate that it is capable of removing customs bottlenecks and regulatory hurdles. Political uncertainty looms, with elections scheduled in Zambia in August and Angola in 2027, increasing the risk of policy changes. In April, torrential rains damaged sections of the Angolan railway line, forcing the LAR to temporarily resort to road transport for the duration of repairs. Critics of the project warn that it will only be seen as another episode in the global rush for Africa's strategic minerals unless it brings tangible economic benefits to communities in the three countries.
