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A Zambia Railways Livingstone bound goods train carrying an undisclosed quantity of copper concentrates derailed on Friday night at Magoye lay-by 30 km south of Mazabuka District.
The Goods train was transporting copper concentrates for a company called Bridge Shipping Zambia destined for export to South Africa.
Zambia Railways Central Region General Manager Mubanga Jawala confirmed the accident but declined to give further details.
A check by a ZANIS crew that rushed to the scene found that five wagons laden with 33 metric tonnes of copper concentrates but slipped off the rail and overturned in Magoye.
A salvage operation was however tasked to remove the copper concentrates from the wagons onto waiting trucks.
Workers were found busy reinforcing the rail line that got damaged in order to normalise train operations and passage.
A technical team dispatched to the scene to ascertain the cause of the derailment is yet to conclude investigations.
However, workers at the scene attributed the derailment to alleged over loading on the five wagons.
In December 2010, a Zambia Railways train derailed in Kapiri Mposhi disrupting the travelling public and goods transportation while another derailed in Ndola after slipping off the rail line when transporting lime.
The Zambia Railways obtained a US$120 million loan two years ago from the Euro bond to upgrade rail infrastructure in the country and improve operations.
That’s sad