Willy Kitobo says, putting copper on the list of strategic minerals is a mistake – DRC
In his communication at the 37th meeting of the Council of Ministers, the Head of State Félix Tshisekedi returned to the need to accelerate the implementation of initiatives to develop the strategic mineral resources of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Faced with the global demand for our natural resources at the heart of the challenges of ecological transition, the Democratic Republic of Congo must develop a more equitable remuneration model and negotiate compensation proportional to what it offers.
For the President of the Republic, this calls for a redefinition of the supply chain for strategic mining products, in particular Lithium, Cobalt, Niobium and Coltan to which it is appropriate to add Copper, because of their demand. world with regard to their industrial applications.
In reaction to this communication from President Félix Tshisekedi, former Minister of Mines Willy Kitobo believes that the decision to align copper on the list of strategic substances in the DRC is a strategic error that will cost the country time and money. in discussions with miners.
“History already tells us of the resistance of miners to easily accept cobalt at a low price of 32,000 USD per ton, or 3 times the price of copper. Certainly, today with the improvement in metal prices; copper around 10,000 USD per ton and cobalt above 70,000 USD per ton, the President would be led to consider adding copper among these metals declared strategic, which will not be possible for reasons such as (1) we are neither in Africa nor in the world the only producer of this metal; (2) as a producer, we are only the 5th producing country of copper in the world, and moreover, this production is made by foreign capital such as China; (3) the financial consequences of this decision,noting that strategic substances are taxed for the mining royalty at a rate of 10%, for copper, the latter will therefore be paid by multiplying by 3, which will lead to the closure of production of the majority of companies. Remember the reasons for the closure of MUMI with Cobalt, the price of which had fallen, to cite just this example”, he said in a statement given to the press on Sunday January 23, 2022.
In the continuity of the State, he noted, the President is not wrong to come back to existing files that have been suspended since the change of government. In the DRC unfortunately, the mistake we make most often is to redo projects that cost time and money to the predecessor, forgetting that this behavior sets our country back each time there are new faces. to high positions of responsibility.
“Several files are still pending, are slow to be applied and/or put in place, yet the majority of them have already been accepted by the Council of Ministers of the Ilunkamba Government. I recall them briefly, insisting that their application is aligns with the vision of making the mining sector a real lever for development in the valorization of our mineral resources. These are (of): Safeguarding the markets for strategic substances in the DRC, coveted in the world which is currently suffering from its non-application however, this is a file initiated and defended by me and which was accepted by the Council of Ministers and the decree of Prime Minister Ilukamba was signed (Decree No. 19/15 of November 05, 2019);The lithium project in Tanganyika has been underway for a few years with Australian AVZ who have already almost finished their project; The Niobium project with the Lueshe project had already evolved with interested partners; the Musompo Trading Center project did not evolve either since it had to be readjusted with the creation of ARECOMS and EGC and above all to sign a decree of the Minister creating it with a whole manual of procedures to follow in accordance with the Mining Code; the file of artisanal mining which remains a poorly organized sector with fraud maintained in the provinces; we must necessarily and urgently clean up;the entire reorganization proposal has existed within the Ministry since the handover and recovery and the said file had already been accepted by the Council of Ministers when I was Minister of Mines with the signing of the decree creating the Market Regulation and Control Authority Strategic Substances such as Cobalt, Lithium, Germanium and Coltan (Decree No. 19/16 of November 05, 2019)”, recalled Willy Kitobo, Honorary Minister of Mines.
For him, the application of these measures should normally be done by the Prime Minister, the current Minister of Mines and the governors of the provinces concerned and to this, it is necessary to add the Haut-Katanga producer also industrial and artisanal copper-cobalt minerals
“For the rest of the President of the Republic’s communication on other strategic substances and Niobium, in my opinion, there are no new strategies except to remind the current Minister of Mines to urgently apply the measures already taken since 2019 by our Ilunkamba government on the safeguarding and control of strategic substances and particularly Cobalt by ARECOMS and EGC”, he concluded.
