DRC: only two new major industries entered production in 2020
Only two new major industries entered production during the year 2020 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, according to DESKECO.COM’s count. Both of these industrial companies are located in Katanga. Here, we are talking about large industrial companies and not small and medium-sized industries (SMIs) which, certainly dozens have gone into production this year.
From January 15, 2020, the DEZIWA mining company went into production in the province of Lualaba. The result of an investment of more than 880 million USD, this copper and cobalt plant has a production capacity of 80,000 to 100,000 tonnes of copper in the first year.
The other company that started production in 2020 is the Grande Cementerie de Katanga, located in Likasi in the Haut-Katanga province, which put its lime kiln into production in August 2020. This company has a capacity production of 300,000 tons of lime per year.
The Deziwa Mining Company (SOMIDEZ) officially launches its production of copper and cobalt, this Wednesday, January 15, 2020, in the province of Lualaba. According to some Gécamines officials, this new mining project has reserves of around 4.6 million tonnes of copper and 420,000 tonnes of cobalt. SOMIDEZ is located in Lualaba province, about 35 kilometers east of Kolwezi, and represents a total investment of US $ 880 million and its development adopts hydro-metallurgical technology from the open pit quarry.
The Minister of Industry, Julien Paluku Kahongya, with his colleague from Mines, Willy Kitobo, has just launched, this Monday, October 26 in Likasi in the province of Haut-Katanga, the production of lime by the Grande Cimenterie Katanga (GCK) with a capacity of 300,000 tonnes per year. In his speech, Julien Paluku specified that the launch of this industry will enable the Republic to produce 300,000 tonnes of lime and 2,200,000 tonnes of cement per year. What to believe is part of the vision of the Head of State, Félix Tshisekedi, which aims at the diversity of the Congolese economy as well as the multiplication of jobs.
