The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has inked a monumental £1.4 billion agreement with a state-run mining enterprise in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the office of the Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi disclosed on Monday.
An official delegation from the UAE had travelled to the Congolese capital, Kinshasa, to finalise the deal with la Société Aurifère du Kivu et du Maniema (Sakima). This accord is set to trigger the development of a minimum of four industrial mines in the strife-torn eastern provinces of South Kivu and Maniema.
Sakima holds the mining rights in this part of the DRC for a diverse range of minerals including tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold. However, further details of which minerals will be extracted under this partnership were not released.
This breakthrough follows a 25-year contract secured by the UAE firm Primera Group with the DRC in December, which gave the firm export rights for some artisanally mined ores. These are metals extracted by independent miners not affiliated with any mining corporations.
This contract bestowed a majority stake in two joint ventures, Primera Gold and Primera Metals, on the Primera Group, entitling them to preferential export rates for gold, coltan, tin, tantalum, and tungsten.
The DRC authorities have highlighted this initiative as a strategy to undermine mineral smuggling and to secure a better income for the country’s informal miners.
The Eastern DRC, plagued for decades by up to 120 distinct militia factions as per the United Nations, has been a hotbed of conflict sustained in part by the illicit trade of minerals.
The UN expressed doubts in a June report regarding the legality of artisanal mines supplying Primera Gold. The report cast suspicion on the possibility that the supply chain might be compromised by ore sourced from sites under the control of these armed groups, due to inadequate traceability mechanisms.
Primera Gold kicked off its operations in January in South Kivu and by May, had transported a tonne of certified gold, as per the Congolese Ministry of Finance.
Image Credit: Ludovic Marin/Reuters
