ANOTHER RAILROAD FOR ZAMBIA?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP85T00875R001600010066-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 12
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 1, 2009
• Sequence Number: 66
• Publication Date: September 1, 1968
• Content Type: IM

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 DIRECTORATE OF
INTELLIGENCE
A /_ i
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O6
Secret
Intelligence Memorandum
Another Railroad for Zambia?
Secret
25X1
ER IM 68-116
September 1968
Copy No.
65
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WARNING
This document contains information affecting the national
defense of the United States, within the meaning of Title
18, sections 793 and 794, of the US Code, as amended.
Its transmission or revelation of its contents to or re-
ceipt by an unauthorized person is prohibited by law.
GROUP I
Frrtluded Iran, oo,omoric
downgroding and
dedou;Pmlion
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SFCR FT
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
Directorate of Intelligence
September 1968
Another Railroad for Zambia?
Summary
One of Za:'. ia's two largest copper companies,
the US- and Ui:-owned Roan Selection Trust, is pushing
a proposal to build a new rail link between the
Zambian Copperbelt and the Benguela Railroad in
Portuguese Angola.
Zambian President Kaunda
has not yet made public his support, in part because
of local political problems. The proposed 500-mile
rail link could be built for as little as $85 mil-
lion if the shortest route were used, but construc-
tion costs could rise to as much as $170 million
if the line were extended to run through politically
important Barotseland in southwest Zambia before it
moved north toward Angola.
Copper company officials are pushing this rail-
road, which they hope would be financed by foreign
governments, primarily because it would open up
allegedly vast copper deposits which are now too far
from the existing railroad to exploit profitably.
They also see the new rail link as an alternative
to the Tan-Zam railroad, which is to be built by
the Chinese Communists from Zambia through Tanzania
to the Indian Ocean port of Dar es Salaam. Company
officials believe that Kaunda might be persuaded to
drop the Chinese project, even at this late date, if
he had a suitable alternative.
President Kaunda, however, will support almost
any scheme that would give his landlocked country
additional alternative links to the sea. He hi.s
Note: This memorandum was produced solely by CIA.
It was prepared by the Office of Economic Research
and was coordinated with the Office of Current
Intelligence.
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orlyl
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stated that this latest railroad would be in addi-
tion to the Tan-Zara railroad, a.ot an alternative
to it. Moreover, Kaunda would find it politically
impossible to call off building the Chinese rail-
road through a black African country in favor of
the newly proposed one through a white-dominated
Portuguese colony whose very existence is anathema
to Africans.
Unless the Tan-Zam railroad is dropped, the new
railroad appears unjustifiable on economic grounds.
The British-owned company that owns the Benguela
Railroad insists on a guarantee that the bulk of
Zambia's copper exports pass over the Angola route
as a condition for undertaking necessary improve-
ments on the existing line. This would cut deeply
into the potential revenue of the Tan-Zam route,
which has been planned to carry all the copper
traffic, and would make the Tan-Zam route unneces-
sary.
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Zambia's Latest Railroad Scheme
1. President Kaunda is quietly backing a pro-
posal to build a new rail link from the Zambian
Copperbelt to the Atlantic Ocean port of Lobito in
Portuguese T-ngola. Zambia is now connected with
Lobito via a railroad through Congo (Kinshasa), but
this route has been plagued with sporadic disrup-
tions f-,r years. Traffic has been halted for ex-
tended periods by rebel actions originating in both
Angola and the Congo. Moreover, Congolese incompe-
tence has kept the volume of traffic far below what
he line could carry and has made delivery dates
uncertain. In any event, President Kaunda has ruled
out increasing Zambia's dependence on the Congo.
Discussions among Zambian and Portuguese officials
and Angolan railway officials over the proposed new
route have been under way for the past several
months, and Zambia has recently requested the United
Nations to help finance surveys. Officials of the
Benguela Railroad in Angola have stated that they
may soon undertake surveys of the Angolan section
of the proposed rail link.
2. The proposed rail project is being strongly
pushed by senior officials of Roan Selection Trust,
Ltd. (RST) -- one of Zambia's two copper companies.
The Chairman of RST has suggested that financing
for the railroad be provided by a consortium made
up of the United States, United Kingdom, France,
Italy, Germany, and Canada, and with Kaunda's knowl-
edge he visited Washington early in September to
generate support for the project.
3. At Kaunda's request the copper company has
identified three possible routes for the railroad
(see tlh: map). The shortest, extending some 500
miles from the Copperbelt to the existing railroad
in Angola, would cost an estimated $85 million but
would pass through Zambian territory that has little
development potential. The second alternative, the
one favored by the copper companies, would be con-
siderably longer but would pass through an area with
3 -
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