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Manono lithium certified by Dathcom Mining: the underside of a plot revealed
February 17, 2023 Mining
If the recent report of the General Inspectorate of Finance (in the abbreviation IGF) highlighted the mismanagement and sale of the mining assets of the Cominière Portfolio company by the members of its board of directors, a letter, related documents and three audios received our editorial staff uncover a plot in the shadows: selling at all costs, and in defiance of the statutes discreet but no less powerful Simon Cong Mao huai.
It all starts when the Chinese mining company ZijinMINING, through its subsidiary Jin Cheng, tries around November 2021 to acquire Cominière's shares within Dathcom Mining, or 15% of the joint venture's shareholding in November 2021. Zijin and Cominière sign an agreement to assign shares without notifying AVZ International or having given it the opportunity to exercise its right of pre-emption as prescribed by law.
Faced with AVZ's refusal to ratify this irregular assignment, Zijin and Cominière are back in charge, no longer frontally but, like a crab, in bias.
In a letter of October 22, 2022 addressed to Cominière with the aim of
"prohiring the Manono Lithium Operation Project", Chen Jinghe, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Zijin Mining, made a proposal to his interim counterpart within the Congolese company: do everything possible to acquire the northern portion of the northern concession covered by Dathcom Mining's Operating Permit 13359, a
Mr Jinghe, who describes AVZ International's exercise of its right of pre-emption over any offer to sell by a shareholder as an
"abusive use of its majority" informs Cominière of her company's desire to acquire
"the northeastern part of PR 13359, the part concerned."
In return, Cominière will be rewarded by receiving 29% of the company's share capital to be created to exploit the coveted portion of the PE 13359.
But the part does not appear to be the simplest: according to the mining code, any portion of a permit to which its holder renounces is first paid into the public domain of the State, it means that any interested person to apply to the Minier Cadastre. And given the lusts that lithium is atonating at the moment and the number of companies that are jostling at the gate of the DRC to get a piece of the cake, it is not certain that the northern portion of PE 13359 will automatically return to Zijin or its subsidiary. For this reason why, the letter, in unequivocal terms, requires Cominière to "be able" to obtain this portion of the concession and the related rights, failing which Zijin will not give back to her the 15% of Dathcom's shareholding that she illegally acquired from Cominière for the pretty sum of US$33.4 million but is unable to claim under Like what, it is never good to put the proverbial plough before the oxen...
As Zijin's letter so eloquently says: "
To avoid any ambiguity, it should be specified that if COMINIERE fails to legally and effectively assign the mining right of the Party to the Joint Venture, COMINIERE will not have the right to require JIN CHENG to re-assign 15% of shares in DATHCOM, nor the waiver of the payment it
To tell the truth, Cominière would lose everything and find herself in debt to the tune of $33.4 million, a sum that this company, poorly managed and without any income, would have all the trouble in the world to repay.
We therefore understand all the despair of Cominière whose senior management, as demonstrated by the IGF report, has already squandered part of the amount paid to her, and that she is already unable to repay a distressed Zijin who has been promised the moon to receive only lead. We also understand Zijin's peremptory PCA tone and the orders to the Cominière Board of Directors to which she addresses as vulgar obedient and submissive laquais. Who hastened to put pressure on a Minister of Mines who granted them a Ministerial Order reporting PE 13359.
As the IGF report so well details, Cominière perfectly illustrates the disastrous management of Portfolio companies and how they collude with many foreign companies to plunder and sell the natural resources that are automatically given to the Congolese.
(File to follow)
By Mupungila Malu, Congo Nouveau and Leader.
www.afr.com
...state owned Cominiere getting 29%..wow all sorted...win win for the incompetent !
