Congo Hoards $1.5 Billion Mountain of Copper and Cobalt

---

Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--A massive hoard of copper and cobalt worth up to US$1.5 billion continues to be stockpiled at one of the world's biggest mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) as a bitter row continues between mine owner Chinese mining giant China Molybdenum Company Limited (CMOC) (Beijing, China) and state-owned mining company, Gecamines SA (Lubumbashi, DRC), which is a minority stakeholder in the Tenke Fungurume Mine (TFM).

The ongoing row over royalty payments has passed the one-year mark and shut down shipments of ore from the mine. Despite this, the mine has continued to operate at full-scale with ore simply piling up. According to estimates from Bloomberg and other experts, there are about 120,000 tons of copper and around 12,500 tons of cobalt stuck, waiting to be exported. Every day, roughly 500 tons of copper and 50 tons of cobalt are added to the mountain.

TFM is one of the world's leading cobalt and copper mines, and in 2021 it produced 209,120 tonnes of copper and 18,501 tonnes of cobalt. This accounts for around 7% of the world's copper and 15% of its cobalt. Efforts to break the deadlock, including overtures from the country's prime minister last year, have so far failed. The Gecamines lawsuit alleges that CMOC has been under-reporting the mine's reserves to reduce the royalties it pays to Gecamines--which CMOC has denied and has refused to allow a temporary administrator access to the mine. Gecamines is seeking US$7.6 billion in unpaid royalties and interest. For additional information, see July 26, 2022, article - China's CMOC Halts Copper-Cobalt Exports from Congo Mine.

"CMOC has had the balance sheet to operate the mine and stockpile the material throughout this period, so I don't think they'll be under pressure to offload it overnight in a fire sale," Caspar Rawles, chief data officer at Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, told Mining Weekly. "But at some point they will have to sell, and there's more than enough material around already." Benchmark estimates the size of the cobalt stockpile at 10,000 to 12,000 tons.

CMOC is the second-largest cobalt producer and a leading copper producer in the world while the Tenke Fungurume Mine covers an area of over 1,500 square kilometers. The operation covers the exploration, mining, extraction, processing, and sales of copper and cobalt. It mainly produces copper cathode and cobalt hydroxide. Industrial Info is tracking CMOC's key projects in the DRC, and the ongoing dispute is impacting planned projects at TFM, including a proposed US$2.5 billion investment to double production of cobalt and copper at the mine. The goal is to construct three ore production lines that would add a total of 12.4 million tonnes per year (Mtp/y) processing capacity of copper-cobalt ores, comprising 3.3 Mtp/y for oxidized ores and 9.1 Mtp/y for mixed ores. This would expand the mine's average annual copper output by 200,000 Mtp/y and cobalt output by 17,000 Mtp/y.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, IIR is tracking over 200,000 current and future projects worth $17.8 Trillion (USD).