Emirati billionaire Sheikh Tahnoon's mining company recommits $1.1 billion to Zambia after dispute

International Resources Holding, the Abu Dhabi mining company in the business empire of Emirati royal Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, has reaffirmed its $1.1 billion commitment to Zambia's Mopani Copper Mines, weeks after the country's state mining company accused it of breaching their partnership agreements.

IRH and ZCCM Investments Holdings, known as ZCCM-IH, said in a joint statement on Oct. 14 that they remained aligned on developing Mopani after what they called constructive discussions. The $1.1 billion covers equity, shareholder funding and operational support. IRH owns 51% of Mopani and ZCCM-IH holds the remaining 49%.

"Our investment in Mopani is a long-term commitment to the business and to Zambia," Ali Rashed Alrashdi, IRH's chief executive officer, said in the statement. Phesto Musonda, chairman of ZCCM-IH, said: "Mopani is more than a mine."

The statement did not say whether the issues raised by ZCCM-IH had been settled. The partners pointed instead to new ground. "Beyond Mopani, IRH and ZCCM-IH are also exploring new opportunities for collaboration in mineral exploration and wider mining operations," they said.

The breach claims

The dispute became public at the end of September. In a letter dated Sept. 18 to Delta Mining, the IRH unit that holds the Mopani stake, ZCCM-IH chief executive Kakenenwa Muyangwa said Delta had failed to meet financial and operational commitments.

The letter said Delta's 2025 payments into Mopani fell $61 million short of the required minimum, and that ZCCM-IH knew of no transfers toward Delta's $140 million funding obligation for this year. It objected to costly debt that Mopani had taken on from related and third parties without approval. It said only $62.3 million of a $308.1 million project development budget had been spent by the end of March, that some contractors lacked the expertise for their work, and that copper cathode output in 2025 came in more than 50% below the business plan.

ZCCM-IH said it preferred an amicable solution but reserved the right to seek damages or go to arbitration. IRH denied a rift at the time and said it had a "strong and constructive relationship" with its partner and was dealing with the matters through normal shareholder discussions.

President Hakainde Hichilema met Alrashdi in Abu Dhabi during a working visit to the United Arab Emirates in late September. He described Mopani as central to Zambia's goal of producing 3 million tons of copper a year and pressed for higher output.

A bet on the Copperbelt

IRH completed its purchase of the Mopani stake in March 2024, paying $620 million in installments, and extended shareholder loans that helped the mine settle debts to Glencore. ZCCM-IH had taken over Mopani from the Swiss commodities group in 2021.

Mopani, which runs mines and processing plants on Zambia's Copperbelt, produced 66,369 metric tons of copper in 2025. The partners said contained copper output rose 63% between 2023 and 2025, and they are targeting 300,000 tons of finished copper a year by 2029. More than 99% of the workforce is Zambian, and Mopani has spent more than $685 million with over 1,300 Zambian suppliers, according to the statement.

Zambia is Africa's second-largest copper producer and wants to roughly triple output to 3 million tons a year by 2031. Hichilema's government is counting on Gulf money to get there.

Tahnoon's mining push

IRH is a unit of 2PointZero Group, an Abu Dhabi-listed investment company within the International Holding Company group, the conglomerate chaired by Sheikh Tahnoon. Tahnoon is the UAE's national security adviser, deputy ruler of Abu Dhabi and a brother of President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. He also chairs the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and ADQ, two of the emirate's sovereign wealth funds, and his private investment vehicle Royal Group, IHC's largest shareholder.

Mopani is the centerpiece of IRH's push into African critical minerals. In 2025 the company agreed to buy a controlling 56% stake in Alphamin Resources, which runs the Bisie tin mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo, for about $367 million. It also made a non-binding offer of more than $1 billion for Vedanta's stake in Zambia's Konkola Copper Mines, which did not go ahead.