ZAMBIA STOPS SENDING COPPER THROUGH SOUTH AFRICA Zambia has stopped sending its copper exports through South Africa, the official Times of Zambia said. The newspaper yesterday quoted highly placed sources as saying the state-owned Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines (ZCCM) was diverting its mineral exports away from South Africa, but it did not say which alternative routes were being used. ZCCM officials declined to comment on the report, but Standwell Mapara, general manager of the Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority (TAZARA), told Reuters recently virtually all Zambian mineral exports had been channelled along the TAZARA line to Dar es Salaam for the last three months. During that period no Zambian copper had been shipped through Zimbabwe to the Mozambican port of Beira - the only other available route which avoids South Africa, Mapara said. Last December TAZARA carried 36,000 tonnes of Zambian mineral ore, the line's record for any one month period, he added. Copper, cobalt and other mineral exports account for 95 to 98 pct of Zambia's foreign exchange earnings and President Kenneth Kaunda told Reuters in a recent interview it was vital for his country to assure new outlets for them, avoiding the traditional route through South Africa. Referring to Zambia's preparations for a possible cut in economic links with South Africa, Kaunda told Reuters in an interview on March 1, "My main concern, of course, is the mines because whatever happens we must continue to run the mines." According to Mapara, TAZARA handled 1.1 mln tonnes of freight last year and is still working well below its present 1.4 mln capacity. Kaunda said that once preparations had been completed for evacuating Zambia's mineral exports on safe and dependable routes his government would look to increase its usage of TAZARA for other types of cargo. The 1986 annual report of Zambia's state-run Metal Marketing Corporation said 81 pct of the country's metal exports were channelled through Dar es Salaam last year, versus 79 pct in 1985. The report said Zambian copper production fell to 463,000 tonnes last year from 526,000 in 1985. Despite the official optimism about diversifying Zambia's export routes, diplomatic sources in Lusaka expressed reservations about the capacity of Dar es Salaam and Beira ports to handle all of Zambia's mineral exports, even if they could be hauled there by train. "The two ports cannot in any way and in their present form handle the huge exports of Zambian copper," one western diplomat said. "A serious disruption in copper movement to the markets could be brought about as it would pile up at the two ports which lack the facilities and space to handle the copper tonnage," he added.