US talks often with Congo’s Gecamines on cobalt and copper, official says

Bloomberg News | March 29, 2024 |

Under Secretary Jose W. Fernandez at SAFe Summit 2024. 

Credit: US State Department

The United States speaks regularly with the Democratic Republic of Congo’s state miner Gecamines, a senior State Department official told Reuters, as Washington seeks to deepen relationships with key suppliers of cobalt and copper across the African continent.

Why it’s important

Chinese aggressive investment across Congo, Zambia and elsewhere in Africa – which holds massive supplies of minerals used to make electric vehicles and other electronics – has for some time raised concern in Washington.

Jose Fernandez, the US State Department’s under secretary for economic growth, energy, and the environment, said in an interview this week that conversations with Gecamines center on supply deals and potential new mines or other projects the company is considering. Conversations take place on average every four to six weeks, he said.

The Mineral Security Partnership (MSP), a multinational collaboration of more than a dozen countries and the European Union to invest in a global supply chain, announced a deal with Gecamines and Japan’s JOGMEC in February. That deal was a product of those conversations, Fernandez said.

Key quotes

“Be it China or anybody else, it’s just not good to have one single supplier of anything,” Fernandez said.

“(Host countries) do not want an investment system where investors bring in their own workforce, do not clean up their environmental damage. They’ve experienced that and that’s not what they want.”

Fernandez declined to comment on whether the US government would seek to buy all or part of Canadian miner First Quantum’s Zambian assets. First Quantum has been seeking fresh sources of cash amid an unrelated dispute with Panama’s government that closed one of the company’s key copper mines.

Context

Fernandez said that the United States continues to work with Zambia and Congo on mining and regulatory structures.

Despite Washington’s efforts in recent years, the United States has lagged behind China in securing access to minerals across the African continent needed for the production of products like EV batteries and solar panels.

Washington’s goal is not to offset China’s influence in Africa’s critical mineral sector but to diversify its own supply chains and encourage African partners to boost their mining standards, Fernandez said.

(By Daphne Psaledakis, Michael Martina and Ernest Scheyder; Editing by Veronica Brown and Rosalba O’Brien)

Read More: Gecamines plans overhaul of mining JVs in world’s top cobalt supplier

UAE’s IRH plans bid for stake in Zambia’s Lubambe copper mine

Reuters | March 28, 2024 | 

Lubambe copper mine, Zambia. Image courtesy of Lubambe Copper Mine Ltd.

International Resources Holding (IRH), a unit of Abu Dhabi’s International Holding Company, said it intends to bid for a stake in Lubambe copper mine in Zambia.


IRH, which recently bought a 51% stake in Zambia’s Mopani Copper Mines, told Reuters the deal had unlocked more opportunities to benefit from Africa’s second largest copper producer.

A unit of Abu Dhabi’s most valuable company, IRH is interested in buying an 80% stake in Lubambe held by EMR Capital, even after Chinese firm JCHX Mining agreed to buy the stake, Reuters reported on March 22, citing sources.

“IRH’s commitment (at Mopani), has opened doors for additional investment opportunities in Zambia, including an intention to bid for a stake in the Lubambe copper mine,” the company said in an emailed response to Reuters questions.

The company’s interest in Lubambe, potentially one of Zambia’s largest copper mines, could create a bidding war with Shanghai-listed JCHX, a mine servicing and contracting firm.

Cash-rich oil majors United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia have recently started to emulate China by investing in African firms to secure resources in a bid to diversify their economies and profit from the shift to electric vehicles (EVs).

IRH said it was actively engaged in exploring a variety of investment opportunities, including submitting bids for mining projects.

“In the forthcoming years, our goal is to seek diversification opportunities beyond copper… (with) targeted investments in other pivotal energy transition minerals, such as cobalt, nickel, rare earth elements, manganese, graphite, and the 3T minerals – tin, tungsten and tantalum,” it said.

(By Felix Njini and Hadeel Al Sayegh; Editing by Jason Neely and Miral Fahmy)