Copperbelt Province is a province in Zambia which covers the mineral-rich Copperbelt, and farming and bush areas to the south. It was the backbone of the Northern Rhodesian economy during British colonial rule and fuelled the hopes of the immediate post-independence period, but its economic importance was severely damaged by a crash in global copper prices in 1973. The province adjoins Katanga province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which is similarly mineral-rich.
The main cities of the Copperbelt are Kitwe, Ndola, Mufulira, Luanshya, Chingola and Chililabombwe. Roads and rail links extend north into the Congo to Lubumbashi, but the Second Congo War brought economic contact between the two countries to a standstill, now recovering.
It is informally referred to at times as 'Copala' or 'Kopala', invoking the vernacular-like term of the mineral copper that is mined in the province.