Gécamines and Glencore have concluded two agreements within days of each other, significantly expanding the state-owned company's ability to sell copper and cobalt independently.

Both agreements concern Kamoto Copper Company (KCC), a mine 70% owned by the Anglo-Swiss commodities group and 30% by Gécamines.

The first agreement was signed on the sidelines of Mining Indaba, held Feb. 9-12 in Cape Town, and grants Gécamines the right to market its share of KCC's production in proportion to its stake. The second deal, announced Feb. 18, aims to increase output and extend the mine's operating life.

According to Glencore, the second agreement is expected to be finalized in the coming months after lease contracts are registered with the national mining cadastre. It will grant KCC access to additional land. That access is needed to “fully unlock KCC's potential by improving the efficiency of the mine, processing facilities and other key infrastructure,” said Mark Davis, Glencore's chief operating officer for Copper Africa.

The additional land should help KCC reach a long-term copper production target of around 300,000 tonnes per year, up from less than 200,000 tonnes currently, and extend the mine's life into the mid-2040s, Davis said. That trajectory would provide Gécamines with about 90,000 tonnes of copper per year, along with significant cobalt volumes.

Glencore said it is prioritizing copper production as it already has sufficient volumes to meet its 2026 and 2027 export quotas. The company does not expect that position to last beyond two years. “For 2028 and beyond, we assume similar price and payment levels to those of the fourth quarter of 2025, as well as the ability to market substantially all of our cobalt production,” the company said in its 2025 resources and reserves report. At KCC, cobalt output typically exceeds 30,000 tonnes per year and is expected to rise as the mine ramps up.

The two agreements deepen Gécamines’s push into mineral trading, a segment where it had until recently maintained only a limited presence. Prior to the Glencore deals, the state company concluded other agreements this year granting it the right to market its share of output from several mines, including Tenke Fungurume Mining (TFM), which is 80% controlled by China’s CMOC and 20% owned by Gécamines. TFM produces more than 400,000 tonnes of copper and around 25,000 tonnes of cobalt annually.

Gécamines is also in advanced talks with Ivanhoe Mines over a deal that would allow it to market up to 50% of output from the Kipushi zinc mine, despite holding only a 38% stake, compared with 62% for the Canadian company. Production at Kipushi is expected to reach between 240,000 and 290,000 tonnes of zinc concentrate in 2026, strengthening its position in the global market.

Pierre Mukoko