Zambia, Africa's biggest copper producer, was renegotiating mining contracts in which royalties paid to the state were currently 0.6 percent, mines minister Kalombo Mwansa said yesterday.

The government was holding talks with "major" mining companies operating in the country and wanted to increase the tax on all contracts stipulating a royalty of that level on sales. Mwansa gave no details on the new royalty. He said the country expected to produce 1 million tons of copper by 2010.