MINING (17)
The Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) has approved a $200 million loan for the Lobito corridor modernization project. In a statement dated September 3, the lender said “The funding will support the construction and upgrading of the railway infrastructure, including the procurement of 50% of the required wagons from a South African local manufacturing company.” The financing is alongside a $553 million commitment from the US International Development Finance Corporation.
This project, backed by the United States and the European Union, aims to upgrade the 1,289 km main railway line connecting Lobito, Negrao, and the Luau border, along with a 28 km branch line to Bimbas. It will also develop port facilities to transport copper and cobalt ores from the landlocked Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia through Angola.
Various observers claim that the US and EU are interested in securing supplies of critical minerals amid the current energy transition, as these resources are seen as essential. "The Lobito Corridor is set to become the most competitive route for exporting these minerals, saving exporters significant time and money. It will not only improve the economic prospects of Angola and the DRC but also promote greater connectivity and trade within the Southern African Development Community (SADC)," the DBSA stated.
On August 22, 2024, trading company Trafigura announced the first shipment of Congolese copper to the US port of Baltimore via the Lobito Corridor. The train carrying this shipment took six days to travel from Kolwezi to Lobito, demonstrating the efficiency of this new route for minerals from the Congolese Copperbelt.
China, which operates mines in the DRC and Zambia, is also interested in establishing logistical support infrastructure for Tanzanian ports. The country is the main backer of the Tazara railway modernization project, which is proposed as an alternative to the Lobito Corridor.
Henoc Dossa, Ecofin Agency
Copper and cobalt producer Kamoa Copper SA signed 13 outsourcing contracts with Congolese small and medium-sized businesses two weeks ago. The deals were sealed on August 22. They are worth around $35,000 respectively, based on data from the DRC’s Outsourcing Agency, the ARSP. 2024.
"Kamoa Copper supports entrepreneurship by publishing its tenders on the PSRA website and creating or facilitating partnerships between local and international contractors," said Riaan Vermeulen, the company's managing director.
These contracts mainly involve supplying technical services. "The duration of the contracts has been increased from 12 months to 36 months to help these companies gain credibility with financial institutions, which is essential for their growth and job creation," the company stated on its X account.
Regarding the contracts’ value, the DRC’s law on outsourcing stipulates that for any contract of more than $35,000 a call for expressions of interest is compulsory. The same law allows companies with 51% local ownership to bid for the contract.
The outsourcing market in the DRC raked in about $8.5 billion in 2022, according to the World Bank. This represented 13.5% of the country’s GDP that year.
In 2023, Kamoa Copper SA's operating expenses surpassed $1 billion, covering various purchases, transport, and external services. The company did not specify how much of this spending was related to compliance with the Subcontracting Act. Between 2022 and 2023, Kamoa Copper announced around $2 billion in similar expenditures.
Georges Auréole Bamba
Chinese mining giant CMOC disclosed its net profit for H1 2024 last week: $762 million. Year-on-year the figure soared by 670%, a performance attributed to significant production growth and “major advancements at its operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)”.
Over the period reviewed, CMOC's copper production doubled to 313,788 tons and cobalt production surged by 178.22% to 54,024 tons.
CMOC reported that its TFM East plant in the DRC reached production targets for H1 2024, with “five production lines now operational”. This has helped push TFM’s annual production capacity to 450,000 tons of copper and 37,000 tons of cobalt–making the mine the world’s fifth-biggest copper mine and second-biggest cobalt mine. Meanwhile, KFM, CMOC’s other project in the DRC, maintained a “high production” with “an annual capacity exceeding 150,000 tons of copper and 50,000 tons of cobalt, solidifying its position as the largest cobalt mine in the world”. CMOC can thus produce 600,000 tons of copper and 87,000 tons of cobalt annually from these two projects.
Besides the rise in production, the Chinese giant attributed the surge in its net profits to other factors such as "the rise in metal prices on world markets, particularly for copper and cobalt". Cobalt and copper were the main drivers of CMOC’s profits but the firm also produces molybdenum, tungsten, niobium, and phosphate fertilizers.
CMOC’s success should help consolidate the DRC’s position in the global copper and cobalt market. The Central African country is the world’s top cobalt product and second-largest copper producer. This success also highlights the potential for increased government revenues from mining, through taxes and royalties, among others.
According to IMF data, the DRC’s mining revenues rose from an average of $4 billion between 2013 and 2017 to $5.5 billion from 2018 to 2022, "thanks to increased production of the main mining export products (copper and cobalt) and by the larger share of mining company profits attributed to the government".
Louis-Nino Kansoun