• Email Us: [email protected]
  • Contact Us: +1 718 874 1545
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Medical Market Report

  • Home
  • All Reports
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

Congo’s $6 billion China mining deal ‘unconscionable’, says draft report

October 8, 2021 by David Barret Leave a Comment

October 8, 2021

By Aaron Ross and Helen Reid

DAKAR (Reuters) – Democratic Republic of Congo should renegotiate its $6 billion infrastructure-for-minerals deal with Chinese investors, according to the draft of a report commissioned by a global anti-corruption body of governments, companies and activists.

The draft, seen by Reuters, describes the deal that was first signed in 2008 as “unconscionable” and urges Congo’s government to cancel an amendment signed secretly in 2017 that sped up payments to Chinese mining investors and slowed reimbursements of investment in infrastructure.

The final report is expected to be released this month by the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), which tracks revenue flows in the oil and mining sectors and counts more than 50 countries, including Congo, as members.

The report has no legal force but, if the draft’s main conclusions remain, it could bolster Congo’s push to secure more favourable terms from mining contracts with Chinese investors.

President Felix Tshisekedi’s government is reviewing the 2008 contract and the reserve levels at China Molybdenum’s Tenke Fungurume mine after saying Congo was not getting a fair deal.

Prime Minister Sama Lukonde Kyenge told a mining conference on Thursday: “There has to be some adjustment.”

The moves represent rare pushback by Congo, the world’s leading producer of the battery metal cobalt and Africa’s top copper miner, against the Chinese investors who control most of its mining industry.

Under the 2008 deal struck with the government of former President Joseph Kabila, Chinese state-owned firms Sinohydro Corp and China Railway Group Limited agreed to build roads and hospitals financed by profits from Congo’s Sicomines cobalt and copper joint venture.

Critics say few of those projects have been realised.

Congo’s government spokesman said he had not read the draft and could not comment. EITI’s office in Congo referred Reuters to the terms of reference of the mission and declined to comment further. A Sicomines representative did not respond to requests for comment.

China Railway had no immediate comment. Sinohydro did not respond to a request for comment.

Fred Zhang, a senior Sicomines official, defended the deal in comments to Reuters last week, saying it had driven development for Congo’s people and Sicomines would disburse more funds as production rose.

‘DENUNCIATION’

The draft, written by two Congolese consultants, recommends “the denunciation by the Congolese state of the unconscionable character of the joint-venture convention of April 22, 2008 and the return to the negotiations table by Sicomines shareholders”.

It says the Chinese companies’ 68% stake in Sicomines is too high since the Congolese contributed all the mining assets and 32% of the initial capital.

It condemns the previously undisclosed 2017 amendment.

Under the 2008 contract, all of Sicomines’ profits would initially go to reimbursing investments in Congo’s most urgent infrastructure projects. It was on that basis that parliament agreed to exempt Sicomines from all taxes, the draft says.

Under the 2017 amendment, seen by Reuters, only 65% of Sicomines’ profits must initially go toward reimbursing the investments while 35% goes to shareholders.

The change could further slow the pace of the infrastructure projects, the draft says. To date, less than $1 billion of the expected $3 billion has been invested, about $1 billion less than projected at this stage, it says.

“This amendment constitutes a violation of the security of the interests of the Republic,” the draft says.

The draft report calls for re-evaluating Sicomines’ reserves, saying a 2010 feasibility study 2010 was flawed, and cancelling another contract with the same Chinese investors to build a hydroelectric dam.

(Reporting by Aaron Ross in Dakar and Helen Reid in Johannesburg; Additional reporting by Sophie Yu in Beijing; Editing by Edmund Blair)

Source Link Congo’s $6 billion China mining deal ‘unconscionable’, says draft report

David Barret
David Barret

Related posts:

  1. Soccer-Depay critical of performance despite first Dutch hat-trick
  2. Explainer-Why are BMW and Daimler being sued over climate change?
  3. Factbox-Universal Music solo project proves a hit with investors
  4. U.S. security adviser Sullivan and China’s Yang hold talks in Zurich

Filed Under: News

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

  • Mother Orca Seen Carrying Dead Calf Once Again On Washington Coast
  • A Busy Spider Season Is Brewing: Why This Fall Could See A Boom Of Arachnid Activity
  • What Alternatives Are There To The Big Bang Model?
  • Magnetic Flip Seen Around First Photographed Black Hole Pushes “Models To The Limit”
  • Something Out Of Nothing: New Approach Mimics Matter Creation Using Superfluid Helium
  • Surströmming: Why Sweden’s Stinky Fermented Fish Smells So Bad (But People Still Eat It)
  • First-Ever Recording Of Black Hole Recoil Captured During Merger – And You Can Listen To It
  • The Moon Is Moving Away From Earth At A Rate Of About 3.8 Centimeters Per Year. Will It Ever Drift Apart?
  • As Solar Storm Hits Earth NASA Finds “The Sun Is Slowly Waking Up”
  • Plate Tectonics And CO2 On Planets Suggest Alien Civilizations “Are Probably Pretty Rare”
  • How To Watch The “Awkward” Partial Solar Eclipse This Weekend
  • World’s Oldest Pots: 20,000-Year-Old Vessels May Have Been Used For Cooking Clams Or Brewing Beer
  • “The Body Is Slowly And Continuously Heated”: 14,000-Year-Old Smoked Mummies Are World’s Oldest
  • Pizza Slices, Polaroid Pictures, And Over 300 Hats: What’s Left Behind In Yellowstone’s Hydrothermal Areas?
  • The Mathematical Paradox That Lets You Create Something From Nothing
  • Ancient Asteroid Ripped Apart In Collision Had Flowing Water
  • Flying Foxes Include The World’s Biggest Bat And The Largest Mammal Capable Of True Flight
  • NASA Responds To Claims That Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS Is An Advanced Alien Spacecraft
  • Millions Of Tons Of Gold Are In Earth’s Oceans, Potentially Worth Over $2 Quadrillion
  • The Race Back To The Moon: US Vs China, Will What Happens Next Change The Future?
  • Business
  • Health
  • News
  • Science
  • Technology
  • +1 718 874 1545
  • +91 78878 22626
  • [email protected]
Office Address
Prudour Pvt. Ltd. 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300 New York City, NY 10170.

Powered by Prudour Network

Copyrights © 2025 · Medical Market Report. All Rights Reserved.

Go to mobile version