Glencore, Mining Companies Driven to Create Own Power Supplies in DRC

Written by Richard Finlayson, Senior International Editor for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--The need to push forward with mining development in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has driven Glencore (LSE:GLEN) (Baar, Switzerland) and the Congo-focused Fleurette Group (Amsterdam, Netherlands) to take on the repair of two turbines at the Societe Nationale d'Electricite du Congo's (SNEL) (Kinshasa) 1,424-megawatt (MW) Inga 2 hydropower plant. The companies also will upgrade 2,000 kilometers of transmission lines to carry the power to the southeastern mining province of Katanga.

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The $360 million investment will result in the production of 450 MW, of which 380 MW will be reserved for the Kamoto mine, which is operated by Mutanda Mining, and owned by Glencore and Fleurette. Pieter Deboutte, a Mutanda director, said the mining company will recoup the cost through reduction in utility bills. To date, Mutanda has been forced to import energy from Zambia, at twice the price of domestic power. It also has used diesel generators at a cost of $3 million per month. Even with these power supply measures in place, the mine experienced 862 hours of power interruptions between May and September this year.

SNEL reported in August that the Katanga province was running a power deficit of up to 734 MW, with demand up to 1,202 MW. With an expanded production target of 1.5 million tonnes of copper annually, the DRC government told the companies in January that plans would be stalled if no extra power was provided.

Randgold Resources (NASDAQ:GOLD) (St. Helier, Channel Islands) started operations at the Kibali mine in northeast DRC in 2013, in a joint venture (JV) with AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE:AU) (Johannesburg, South Africa) and the state's Sokimo (Kinshasa). They opted to build their own hydropower stations, as the mine would not make a return without reasonable power costs.

South Africa has ratified a treaty with DRC to develop the 4,800-MW Inga 3 project, from which 1,300 MW will be reserved for the mining sector, 2,500 MW will go to South Africa and 1,000 MW will be used for domestic consumption. Inga 3 is the first step in the proposed Grand Inga scheme, which envisages a total output of 40,000 MW.

For related information, see May 21, 2013, article - Construction to Start on Congo's 40,000-Megawatt Grand Inga Hydro Project in 2015, and December 9, 2013, article - African Development Bank to Fund Initial 'Nuts and Bolts' Phase of Congo River Project.

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