China and Zambia launched Thursday a US$1.4 billion project to modernise a railway line that will transport minerals from the copper-rich southern African country to Indian Ocean ports for export.

Premier Li Qiang attended the ground-breaking ceremony in Zambia, with Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema and Tanzanian Vice President Emmanuel Nchimbi.

"The railway serves as a bond that binds the peoples of China, Tanzania and Zambia closely together," Li said.

The premier added that China is willing to work with Zambia and Tanzania to advance the development of a prosperity belt along the Tanzania-Zambia Railway, and jointly foster a new hub of economic growth.

Hichilema also hailed the development.

"We don't see TAZARA as just a rail line... we see TAZARA as an economic corridor," said Hichilema, referring to the Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority.

Beijing has committed around US$1.4 billion to revive the roughly 1,860 km line built by China in the 1970s to transport critical minerals from Zambia's Copperbelt to the coast via Tanzania.

China is among Africa's largest trading partners and has sought to tap the continent's natural resources including copper, gold, lithium and rare earth minerals.

It is also Zambia's leading creditor and holds huge stakes in its mining sector.

Zambia is the second-biggest producer of copper in Africa after the DRC, and the seventh-largest producer in the world.

The work would take around three years and include upgrading the line, procuring more than 800 new locomotives and constructing bridges and tunnels, a representative of the China Railway Corporation said.

It would increase freight volumes to 2.4 million tonnes per year, the official said.

The concession will run for 28 years before operations are handed over to Zambia and Tanzania.

A separate railway linking inland mines to the Atlantic Ocean involves major development at the Angolan port of Lobito.

It has received financing from the United States, the European Union and others to rehabilitate a railway connecting the mineral-rich DRC and Zambia with Lobito. (Xinhua/AFP)