Zambia, Africa's biggest copper producer, is prepared to take over two mines operated by Glencore International AG if the company halts output at the sites next month, Mines Minister Maxwell Mwale said.

The government wants to prevent more job cuts in the southern African country and Glencore should allow other investors to operate the mines, which are scheduled to close on April 14, Mwale told lawmakers yesterday in Parliament in the capital, Lusaka.

"If they want to place the mines on care and maintenance they should surrender the assets to the government," he said.

The planned closures by Glencore come after the copper price dropped 54 percent on the London Metal Exchange last year. The decline was the biggest since at least 1987 and was spurred by recessions in the U.S., Japan and Germany, which curbed demand for industrial metals.

Zambia's government asked Glencore to reconsider its decision "for the sake of safeguarding jobs," Deputy Mines Minister Boniface Nkhata said in Parliament.

"Glencore confirms that it is in negotiations with the government about the future of the Mufulira and Nkana mines," company spokesman Marc Ocskay said yesterday by telephone from Baar, Switzerland in response to requests by Bloomberg News for comment.

Mine Workers Union of Zambia General Secretary Oswell Munyenyembe said the organization was "disturbed" by mining companies' plans to withdraw from the country and called for talks with the government and mine owners to discuss the future of the industry.

The labor union estimates 15,000 jobs may be lost in Zambia's copper-mining industry this year.