JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Positive infrastructure advancement is on the way in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), SRK Consulting Congo chairperson Dominique Sambwa has pointed out.

Speaking to Mining Weekly during a Zoom interview, Sambwa drew attention to the DRC having secured considerable agreements and partnerships on infrastructure building, which are expected to take root over the next five years. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)

He called attention to the latest negotiation by the government involving a $7-billion infrastructure investment in power stations, roads, rail, hospitals and schools – with a lot to come between now and 2030.

At a time when the DRC is seeking to diversify its mining partners, it can be reported that some of the biggest infrastructure achievements to date have been through Chinese infrastructure contracts that are linked to the granting of mining rights to Chinese consortiums.

Interestingly, the DRC has increased its copper production from 70 000 t in 2000 to more than two-million tons last year, on average adding 100 000 t a year.

Moreover, the Central African country will require a lot more energy infrastructure to achieve its beneficiation aspirations. These involves adding value domestically to the metals and minerals with which it has been so abundantly endowed.

Besides growing its copper output considerably, the DRC is continuing to provide the world with 70% of the cobalt that is so crucial in battery, superalloy and vibrant blue colour applications.

Chinese companies have dominated DRC’s mining sector for almost two decades, playing a big role in extraction of mainly copper and cobalt in the Katanga copper belt in particular.

More recently they have ventured towards lithium. The presence of lithium mineralisation in pegmatites in the DRC’s Manono area has been confirmed and those mining lithium there have announced that they will be entering the production phase next year.

Chinese companies are also in gold areas, mostly with artisanal mining. “Although this can count, let's say it’s out of the control of officials. But what’s very positive is that these Chinese mining companies have invested in infrastructure, their mines have created a lot of local jobs, and their operations have contributed significantly to DRC mining tax revenues.

“But criticism persists over some imbalances here and there in the agreements, with some controversial situations. But the economic impact is noticeably real,” Sambwa pointed out.

While some Chinese mining companies have been accused of causing water and soil pollution, deforestation and displacement of local communities, distinctive corrective measures have also been put in place.

Most copper and cobalt is produced using acid leach and if certain measures are not taken, water and soil pollution can result.

“But what needs to be made known is that Chinese companies have been doing quite a lot to comply with regulations and international standards, which has resulted in greater environmental protection.

“Compared with what used to take place 20 years ago, I would say that there has been very major operational improvement in their operations but some environmental and social impact challenges still remain and more effort is taking place to enforce environmental and governance regulations but there is a lack of expertise and a lack of people with competence to deal with these challenges,” Samba added.

Mining Weekly: These days, investment has got to be inclusive. It’s got to benefit the ordinary citizen. Of course, if the infrastructure is big enough, it's going to benefit the ordinary citizen. But how are you getting this investment to flow to everybody in the DRC, big and small?

Sambwa: It's still a challenge because of the lack of follow-up to make inclusive growth more effective, and the contribution of the mining sector to the whole chain of beneficiaries, from the biggest to the smallest. But it's coming . . . today you can notice that there has been quite a big improvement. But still, there are quite a lot of challenges to bring the contribution to . . . the well-being of the whole population, wherever they are, and quite a lot of effort needs to be made to make this happen.

Mining Weekly: We are running a story right now to show how Zambia is setting out to bring inclusivity to communities and ordinary citizens through its ‘G-Factor’ mining revenue system, which gives easy visibility to the level of natural resource wealth shared with the governments of host countries, with data published online for everyone to access. What about the DRC doing something similar?

Sambwa: We are dealing with that, but what you need to know is that DRC still has quite a lot of challenges, and our neighbours, like Zambia have, thanks to their political stability, been going through less challenges than the DRC has. But it's coming and we’ve got some of the common projects such as on the battery metal zone of production that will involve Zambia and DRC together.

ZAMBIA-DRC TRANSBOUNDARY BATTERY ZONE

As has been reported, plans are afoot to establish a joint Zambia-DRC battery initiative. The two metal-endowed neighbours are reportedly collaborating around the development of a regional battery value chain, focusing on the production of battery precursors and batteries. They are reportedly working towards creating special economic zones and a transboundary battery industry zone to facilitate this.