Page 85 - pd307-Aug22-mag-web-Neat

DRC to expand copper clude Glencore SA, Canada-listed Ivanhoe
Mines Inc, China’s CMOC and Kazakh firm
Eurasian Resources Group. Some have in-
border crossing creased copper production this year.
Ivanhoe, operator of the Kamoa-Kakula
mine in DRC, transports its products by truck
to the South African port of Durban.
he Democratic Republic of Congo plans Reuters, adding that it would take at least 18 It referred to a June 6 update on produc-
Tto expand its main border post with Zam- months to complete from the date the project tion, costs and timelines, saying it expects to
bia, a source close to the Government said, is approved. reach the upper end of its 2022 guidance of
to ease truck queues of up to 60km that The source did not give an expected time- between 290,000t and 340,000t of copper
copper miners have faced this year due to line for the approval. concentrate, from 105,884t in 2021. It pro-
increased production and inadequate infra- “The turnaround time of trucks has in- jects further rises for 2023.
structure. creased substantially... it takes an extra 45 DRC is also the world’s top producer of
The backlog of trucks at Kasumbalesa, a to 60 days for the products to reach con- cobalt used to make the rechargeable bat-
border town and the main exit point for met- sumption centres in Asia, Europe or North teries that power EVs.
als exports from the DRC, is an example of America,” said a source at a company with Glencore, which produces most of its co-
supply chain disruption that will make it hard- operations in the central African country. balt in DRC, saw its global output rise 46%
er to meet future demand for copper. This compares to around 15 days in 2019. in the first quarter of 2022 compared to the
“A construction project for a second Africa’s biggest copper producer, DRCC same period last year.
Lubumumbashi-Kasumbalesa road is in the accounted for 1.8mt of mined production of Miners with operations in the DRC say
process of being signed,” the source told the metal last year, about 8.5% of the global they have been calling on the Government to
total, according to the invest in infrastructure and switch from paper
US Geological Sur- to electronic systems, arguing that projected
vey. copper shortages in future are likely to be
The long queues of exacerbated by transportation bottlenecks.
trucks are due in part More border posts would add “a signifi-
to increased traffic, cant amount of processing capacity, create
according to Michel competition between the different provinces
Kibonge Nyekuma, [and] all those customs clearing revenues
chief of staff for the would improve efficiencies,” one official at a
Minister of Mines. mining company said.
The largest min- – Clara Denina, Pratima Desai and
ers in Congo in- Helen Reid, Reuters

Energold is a global drilling solutions provider
and trusted partner to mining, exploration and
infrastructure companies.

Operating a diverse fleet of drilling rigs
we specialise in delivering safe, high-quality
and productive drilling programs in remote
locations worldwide.

WWW.ENERGOLD.COM
CALL: +44 1926 691 036
EMAIL: INFO@ENERGOLDGROUP.COM

aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT aUgUST 2022 Page 85