First Mining Drc-Zambia Sep/Oct 2017 FMDRC-Zambia Sep Oct | Page 6

Mining
NEWS
Congolese block export of raw metals to China
e Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has
Sinohydro and China Railway Construction
said the rm had responded to the letter.
ordered Sinohydro and China Railway own 68% of Sicomines. e project is a key part "We're in contact with the ministry to unblock
Construction's local mining venture to stop of a 2007 deal under which Chinese companies the situation," he said on October 4. "ere are
exporting unprocessed copper and cobalt and build infrastructure, including roads and no major problems.”
to re ne all its metals within the country. hospitals, which is nanced by Chinese banks e venture, called Sicomines, must ship "only in return for metals like copper and cobalt. e April 2008 convention that established
high-value products" as the government looked In a September 11 letter to Sicomines director- Sicomines says it must ship 200,000 tonnes of
to "ensure the prompt repayment" of the general Sun Ruiwen, Kabwelulu said he copper cathodes annually by its second year of
country's $6bn minerals-for-infrastructure disapproved of the products the company was commercial production and "a corresponding
deal with China, Mines Minister Martin exporting. He said the bulk of the products tonnage" of processed cobalt, which is obtained
Kabwelulu said on October 2 in response to exported by Sicomines were unre ned copper as a by-product of copper mining. Output
questions. concentrate and cobalt hydroxide, not should rise to 400,000 tonnes of re ned copper
processed copper cathodes and cobalt metal. in the third year of production.
Sicomines's pro t is used to pay off the loans Local mining authorities had been instructed to Sicomines began production in November 2015
China provides to the DRC, which will be "no longer authorise the export of mining and produced 44,000 tonnes of copper cathodes
reimbursed quicker if the mine exports higher- products other than" processed copper and in 2016.
value, re ned metals. e $3.2bn mining cobalt, Kabwelulu said in his letter. project operated by Sicomines accounted for Of 112 trucks ferrying exports of the metals, "Sicomines must respect the convention,"
about a quarter of copper concentrate and 5% of only 44 had been allowed to proceed because Kabwelulu said. e company did not say why it
copper cathode exports in 2016 from the DRC, they were already at the border, he said in a text officially exported no cobalt in 2016 or the rst
Africa's biggest copper producer. message. half of 2017.
Sicomines exported 115,000 tonnes of copper In contact monitoring the project, said in October 2015
Moise Ekanga, the head of the department
concentrate and 20,000 tonnes of copper Sicomines, whose Congolese shareholders that Sicomines needed an extra 170MW of
cathodes in the rst half of 2017, according to include state-owned Gecamines, trucks its power to run at full capacity. Sinohydro and
the provincial division of mines in south products to Zambia. China Railway are nancing a 240MW, $660m
Katanga, where the mine is. Sicomines deputy director-general Jean Nzeng hydroelectric plant.
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