Zambia, a country in Africa, endowed with significant mineral wealth including copper, cobalt, gold, and other critical minerals, is strategically positioned to support the global energy transition and mineral security agenda. In early 2024, the country initiated a nearly USD 100 million countrywide high-resolution airborne geophysical survey (CHRAGS 2024), integrating magnetic, radiometric, and gravity data acquisition. This investment accounts for close to 1% of global mineral exploration expenditure (2024 – 2025 season). This investment has generated one of the most comprehensive national geoscience datasets in sub-Saharan Africa. The resulting data holds significant potential for delineating undiscovered mineral deposits, expanding known reserves, mapping groundwater systems, and enhancing evidence-based environmental monitoring and land-use planning.

However, the full impact of this investment remains constrained by technical capacity gaps, the absence of a formal regulatory framework to promote geoscience professionalism, and insufficient international collaboration, factors that have limited mentoring opportunities, hindered technical specialization, and reduced the peer review and quality assurance necessary for effective interpretation and application of the acquired geoscience data.

This presentation, from the perspective of the Geological Society of Zambia, explores best practices for developing effective and equitable international collaborations in geosciences. It highlights Zambia’s evolving model of collaboration with institutions across North America, Europe, Africa and Asia to support joint research, technology transfer, and postgraduate training, particularly in reflection seismology, mineral exploration targeting, and geoscience education. These efforts have been instrumental in aligning geoscience applications with national priorities such as sustainable mineral development, environmental resilience, and value chain enhancement.

The Zambian case demonstrates how co-created international partnerships, rooted in shared goals, transparency, and mutual capacity building, can unlock the transformative potential of geoscience data. It also underscores the urgent need to train a new generation of geoscientists equipped with advanced technical skills and ready to contribute to future-facing projects in mineral value addition, energy transition, and resource sustainability. The presentation offers actionable insights into how countries with emerging data infrastructure can leverage global collaboration to strengthen national development and contribute to the global geoscientific community.