DRC's Katanga governor puts permanent ban on copper ore export
Source: Metals Place
metalsplace.com
A permanent ban on Katanga raw ore exports had been imposed by the newly elected Katanga governor Moise Katumbi, Mining Weekly Online reported on Tuesday.
A grace period of six months was given to the companies, including South African Metorex, exporting laboratory-certified concentrate above15% concentration from Katanga.
From October a ban would also be imposed on the export of concentrate and only refined metal would be allowed to leave the province, Mining Weekly Online said.
If it was not economically feasible for individual copper-cobalt miners to each build their own plants, Katumbi said the various companies should then take steps to arrive collectively at a solution of investing in the refinery of state-owned miner Gecamines and in that way they would be able to lower the cost of treating ore.
He said Metorex was in partnership with Gecamines and could assist in restoring the Gecamines plant, which requires a $60-million investment.
The raw material generated by artisanal miners had henceforth to be sold to Gecamines.
Speaking at a signing ceremony to mark the start of work on a large new copper refinery, Katumbi heaped praise on the London AIM-listed company Nikanor for investing in the province that once contributed 70% to the Democratic Republic of Congo as a whole.
A $30-million earthworks contract between Nikanor's DCP subsidiary and Mining Company Katanga (MCK), headed by South African Kenneth MacLeod, was signed, for a 250 000 ton a year (tpa)-to-400 000tpa state-of-the-art solvent-extraction-electrowinning refinery, which may eventually also toll-treat material for others in the region. MCK has procured a band new truck fleet for the earthmoving assignment from South Africa's Bell Equipment.
Primary use, however, will be for Nikanor's own Kamoto-Oliveira-Virgule (KOV) operation and its other assets in Kolwezi.
Katumbi praised a corporate social road-rehabilitation investment that Nikanor had already undertaken in Katanga, which meant that Katangans could now drive to Kolwezi in a matter of hours rather than days.
Nikanor, headed by executive chairperson Jonathan Leslie – known in South Africa as the former CEO of Sappi – is investing $1,3-billion in KOV, which is one of the world's largest high-quality copper-cobalt orebodies. |
