Assessing the Effectiveness of Mopani Copper Mines in Promoting Employment and Enhancing Household Income: A Case Study of Kantanshi Constituency, Mufulira District

This study empirically investigates the paradoxical coexistence of corporate wealth and community poverty in Zambia's mining sector, critically assessing why Mopani Copper Mines (MCM), a cornerstone of the national economy, fails to generate equitable employment and resilient household incomes in its host community, Kantanshi Constituency. Through a rigorous case study methodology employing structured questionnaires with sixty (60) purposively sampled residents and statistical analysis in STATA, the research systematically critiques MCM's core operational practices. The findings deliver a stark verdict: MCM's recruitment is structurally exclusionary, with half the local population never applying due to opaque processes and perceived nepotism; its wage structures, though a primary income source for 51.7% of households, are critically undermined by inadequacy and irregular payments, leaving 21.7% of families worse off; and its training programs are rendered ineffective by negligible awareness (58.3% uninformed) and a profound misalignment with industry skills demands, resulting in dismal job absorption. The study concludes that MCM's operational model perpetuates, rather than mitigates, local socio-economic disparities, offering unequivocal evidence that without a fundamental re-orientation towards transparent, inclusive, and community-centric human capital policies, the mine's developmental promise will remain unfulfilled, cementing its role as an enclave economy rather than a catalyst for broad-based prosperity.