During the 1990s, African governments sought to translate their commitment to privatise state enterprises into action. In doing so, they faced questions concerning the form in which these enterprises would be sold, to whom and on what terms. This paper examines the privatisation of Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines (ZCCM) between 1992 and 2000. It argues that the capacity of the Zambian government to determine the answers to these questions was constrained by a number of factors, of which the most important were the strategies pursued by potential purchasers, the demands of donors and the financial weakness of ZCCM itself.