Angola is in the process of rehabilitating the Benguela rail line, which will link Lobito to the Angolan heartland and should ultimately extend into south-central Africa. The line currently operates up to the eastern city of Luena, Moxico province, about two-thirds of the way to the Copperbelt (the copper mining region adjoining Zambia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo). Additional rehabilitation works to extend the line from Luena to Luau, on the border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo, are under way and could be completed by December. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, studies to rehabilitate a rail line from the Congolese town of Dilolo on the Angolan border to the copper-rich city of Kolwezi in central-southern Congo are under way. In Zambia, studies are being conducted to build a new rail line linking the Zambian Copperbelt cities of Chingola, Solwezi and Lumwana with an Angolan-proposed spur line from Luacano. This spur could be integrated into an existing but unreliable Zambian rail line that connects to the Tanzanian port of Dar es Salaam and also to South Africa. The Benguela line, once completed, could facilitate the development and freer transport of copper, cobalt and diamond resources from south-central Africa. It could also disrupt South Africa's effective monopoly of the region's transportation infrastructure.
