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Gold/Mining/Energy : first quantum minerals FM on TSE -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: rdww who wrote (214)	1/15/1998 12:37:00 PM
From: DRT	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 385

Impressive list of companies to be associated with re. Kolwezi! FYI. Wednesday January 14, 4:07 pm Eastern Time Kabila's Congo announces major mining deal By William Wallis KINSHASA, Jan 14 (Reuters) - President Laurent Kabila said on Wednesday that a group of foreign companies had signed a consortium deal with state-owned Gecamines to mine in the Democratic Republic of the Congo's southern Kolwezi area. The deal, announced by Kabila on state television, followed three days of talks in the capital Kinshasa between government officials, Gecamines and mining companies from all over the world. Details of the size of the deal, money involved or stakes have yet to be disclosed but state television said the consortium included Australian, Asian, Belgian, Canadian, Chinese, European and South African based mining companies. ''For us this is a memorable day... It is a subject of great pride to us that a deal as important as this could be signed only eight months after we took power,'' Kabila told a large group of assembled mining companies in the televised closing ceremony. ''We hope that other investors as important as you will be inspired by your project and understand that the Democratic Republic of the Congo is entirely willing to enter into partnership with all the serious investors of the world,'' he added. At the outset of the talks, an official from Gecamines said the deal would cover a vast 22,000 sq km of copper rich Katanga around the main mining centre of Kolwezi. It was not immediately clear whether the consortium deal would roll over other joint-venture agreements already in operation or under negotiation in the Kolwezi area. One diplomat told Reuters that a contentious project to exploit a mountain of high-grade copper tailings at Kolwezi was not included. Diplomatic sources in Kinshasa said South African companies Anglo-American (AACJ.J) and ISCOR Ltd (ISCO.J), Australia's BHP, Canadian companies Falconbridge (Toronto:FL.TO - news) and First Quantum (Vancouver:FM.V - news), and unspecified Chinese and Angolan companies were among those involved in the discussions. The television said that Anglo-American thanked Kabila on behalf of the mining companies present. Kabila said at the opening of the talks that the consortium would be called the ''Global Development of Mining in Kolwezi.'' The government hopes the deal will help to revamp the long- neglected mining sector, and kickstart the economy in Africa's third largest country left devastated by decades of corrupt rule under former dictator Mobutu Sese Seko. Kabila ousted Mobutu last May with the help of Rwanda after a seven-month bush war. Late last year, Gecamines scrapped a deal signed in April between American Mineral Fields (Toronto:AMZ.TO - news) and Kabila while he was still a rebel leader, to exploit what they say is $8 billion worth of high grade tailings there. Gecamines said that the agreement did not meet the higher interests of the nation. Economic and mining experts in Kinshasa expressed fears at the time that the move might jeopardise foreign investment by deterring long-term investors.