Category: Mining and Business

By Christophe Le Bec Officially launched on 31 March, EGC – a new subsidiary of Gécamines – is intended to formalise and clean up a previously opaque artisanal mining sector. It will partner with Swiss commodities giant Trafigura, the US NGO Pact, and the UK auditors Kumi, using blockchain technology to track minerals as they […]

A AVZ Minerals said on Monday it had secured a $240 million funding from a private investment firm, jointly owned by Chinese battery maker CATL, to develop its lithium project in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Under the agreement, private equity firm Suzhou CATH Energy Technologies would get a 24% stake in the joint […]

By Muriel Devey Malu-Malu Although it does not yet produce lithium, the Democratic Republic of Congo looks set to become one of the world’s suppliers of this metal, classified as strategic by the Congolese authorities in 2018, by as early as 2022. In the provinces of Tanganyika and Haut-Lomami, in the south-east of the DRC, […]

By Bloomberg Glencore Plc could reopen its Mutanda Mining copper and cobalt project in Democratic Republic of Congo by the end of 2021, about two years after idling the mine. Congo’s new mines minister, Antoinette N’Samba Kalambayi met with representatives from the Swiss company Monday to discuss the restart of the mine, which closed in […]

By BloomBerg News The Democratic Republic of Congo began reviewing a $6.2 billion minerals-for-infrastructure deal with China that’s faced growing criticism since President Felix Tshisekedi came to power almost three years ago. Congo’s council of ministers agreed to create a commission to investigate “major legal, technical and financial problems observed in the collaboration agreement” between […]

The recent ease in global demand for the blue metal cobalt has dampened concerns about a pending supply crunch. Earlier reports predicted that the world’s appetite for batteries would lead to a situation of demand outstripping supply for cobalt by the end of the 2020s. This in turn led to worries that the global shift to […]