City Detail

Luanshya is a town in Zambia, in the Copperbelt Province near Ndola. It has a population of 117,579 (2008 census). The name Luanshya is the Lamba word which means a place of entelope, inshya is antelope and the area was surrounded with the entelope family and the reason the name was given which is related to the antelope family. Luanshya was founded in the early part of the 20th century after two prospector/explorer, William Collier shot and killed a Roan Antelope on the banks of the Luanshya River, discovering a copper deposit in the process. The antelope fell to the ground, its head resting on a rock where an exposed seam of copper ore was visible. The mining company eventually formed to exploit Collier's find was named "Roan Antelope Copper Mines Ltd". For most of the 20th century, copper was mined in great quantities at Luanshya but towards the end of the century, mining there became increasingly uneconomic, causing a severe recession in the town.