Willy Kitobo presents 3 mining investment opportunities at the 22nd CANADA-AFRICA Chamber of Commerce Conference
The Democratic Republic of the Congo, through the Minister of Mines, Willy Kitobo, has been invited to participate in the International Conference organized by the Canada – Africa Chamber of Commerce from March 9 to 10, 2021, reports the Communication Unit of the Ministry of Mines .
The Minister of Mines intervened in session 2 devoted to mining activities in the DRC to talk about “mineral resources and specific investment opportunities in the Democratic Republic of Congo”.
It was exactly around 4 p.m. Kinshasa time and 10 a.m. Toronto time, after the opening of the virtual conference that the Minister of Mines, Willy KITOBO SAMSONI, presented in detail with PowerPoint support to more than 1,000 participants online and for about 30 minutes the spatial distribution of the potential of the mineral resources of our country and the three strategic axes of our Government to develop our mining sector, rich mainly in ores containing Copper, Cobalt, Zinc, Gold, 3T (Tin, Coltan, Wolframite), Diamond, Manganese and Iron.
The head of the Congolese mines indicated that the studied and documented mineral resource deposits currently exploited are concentrated in the east of the country and part in the center in the region of the former Kasai. According to him, the analysis of data from the Mining Cadastre indicates that only 11% of the national territory is covered by mining activities with 3,053 various permits granted. And so most of it remains to be discovered through extensive geological and mining research.
For Willy Kitobo, the DRC, with its “stable and attractive” mining law and given the geostrategic position in the center of Africa, with a cheap and abundant workforce, presents several investment opportunities, particularly in the search for new mineral deposits, investment in on-site processing of mining products and investment in basic infrastructure.
Regarding the search for new deposits, the Minister of Mines informed the participants of the forum that research is necessary to improve and deepen the geological and mining information that should make it possible to attract investors for the development of the mineral resources of the soil and of the basement of our country. Although also carried out by the holders of the concessioned mining rights, this research is carried out on 19 blocks called geological research zones of the State, ZRG in acronym by the National Geological Service of Congo with the financial support of the Mining Fund for the Generations futures, FOMIN which regularly collects, in accordance with the law, 10% of the mining royalty paid by mining operators for each export of their merchant mining products.
As for the processing of minerals, he recalled that the Congolese mining law prohibits the export of raw mining products and even unfinished concentrates. The country requires on-site processing to give the market products extracted from the deposits of mineral substances from the soil and subsoil a greater added value. With this policy, the country encourages the continued installation of treatment and / or metallurgical transformation units.
Regarding the promotion of investments in the field of basic infrastructure, the Minister of Mines indicated that the Congolese mining sector has a significant energy deficit which most often blocks investments in energy-intensive processes such as those using ovens. . In addition, road and rail infrastructure are necessary to facilitate access to mining sites and the transport of minerals, market products and mining inputs.
It should be noted that major DRC miners including Ivanhoe mines and Kibali Gold mines also participated in this conference with communications on their mining activities on Congolese territory.
