DRC in talks with investors on financing state owned cobalt company
PRIVATE capital could be invited to fund the activities of a planned state company in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Reuters said, citing comments from the country’s minister of mines.
Bloomberg had last week reported that the Democratic Republic of Congo was interested in establishing a state monopoly that would buy the cobalt produced by the artisanal miners. However, according to a report by Reuters, Minister of mines Willy Kitobo Samsoni would invite investors.
“It is easier for us to be funded by the Congolese government,” Samsoni told Reuters on the sidelines of the Mining Indaba investment conference in Cape Town. “But if the state can’t raise the funds to buy all of the artisanal cobalt, the state has to partner with a company.”
“We have plans to talk to financiers here,” added Samsoni.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo produces about 60% of the world’s cobalt. Most of it is extracted from industrial companies like Glencore and China molybdenum, with artisanal miners accounting for about a quarter of the production, Reuters said.
The new company, Entreprise Generale du Cobalt (EGC), will be managed independently of the state-owned mining company Gecamines, said Samsoni.
Artisan production increased as the cobalt price rose in 2017 and early 2018, accounting for up to 20% of the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s production, said metal trader Darton Commodities. Congolese officials put the number at 30%.
Source: Reuters
