Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) state mining company Gecamines is looking to increase its stake in its Boss Mining joint venture with ENRC Africa Holdings- a subsidiary of Kazakh group Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation- to 49% after the two companies renegotiated terms.
According to media reports, the state miner is moving to increase its take from joint ventures with international miners such as Glencore and China Molybdenum. The move has been attributed to claims from Gecamines that the two are not bringing enough money to the country.
In a statement earlier on this week, Gecamines said its share in Boss Mining would go up 10%, while ENRC’s stake would fall 21% from 70%. Meanwhile, a Boss Mining debt of US $1.5Bn towards ENRC has also been cancelled. Furthermore, the signing bonus payable by ENRC to Gecamines was raised to US $165 from US $35 per tonne of copper and copper equivalent. This is according to a statement released by Gecamines.
Boss Mining exported over 17,000 tonnes of copper over the first six months of 2018. Gecamines signed a production-sharing deal for copper and cobalt deposits with China’s Hongkong Excellen Mining Investment last week. This accounts for its first production-sharing deal for copper and cobalt deposits.