Chinese contracts: the IGF shouts at the sell-off of the country's mining resources and reveals the mafia network!
What everyone feared in what has since been called "Chinese Contracts" has just come true.
A report by the General Inspectorate of Finance, IGF, highlights that the Republic has sold off its resources in its contracts concluded under Kabila.
In fact, not having fresh capital to boost the development of the country, the regime had entered into a partnership with Chinese companies, in particular for the construction of basic infrastructure against the exploitation of deposits used for this purpose.
A joint venture had been created, SICOMINE to manage the interests of two parties.
Only then, after several years of implementation of this contract and exploitation of Congolese resources, the General Inspectorate of Finance comes to the conclusion that the resources of the Republic have been sold off and squandered against minimal achievements.
In the IGF report, the Chinese side has already exploited mineral resources worth 10 billion US dollars while the infrastructure built in return is valued at around 800 million dollars only and its impact is not visible.
To do this, the IGF simply recommends revisiting them.
"It is a question that the agency responsible for monitoring this program can begin a process that will lead to the revisiting of this agreement.
The glaring imbalance that has been observed, the selling off, the squandering of our minerals observed in this contract has been also the work of many misguided sons of our country who have accompanied Chinese companies in this macabre work against our country.
So now, by the will of His Excellency the President of the Republic, Head of State, the process is set in motion through the agency so that there is a rebalancing of the gains, advantages and charges in this agreement.
The DRC has made deposits available to the convention; deposits whose value is estimated at more than 90 billion USD.
Regarding the constitution of the company Sicomines, the DRC only had 32% of the shares while the Chinese part monopolized 68% for an undervalued capital of 100 million USD.
On the other hand, in the operation of this agreement, Chinese companies have already received a gain estimated at nearly 10 billion USD, while the DRC has only benefited from 822 million in terms of infrastructure.
Will it be necessary in the 822 million that we enter in depth to realize that there is no visibility of these 822 million", denounced Jules Alingete, inspector general, head of service of the IGF.
To convince us of the correctness of its argument, Alingete cites the example of the Cinquantenaire hospital, which is found in infrastructures of the order of 114 million USD when everyone knows that this hospital already existed and that it it was just a finalization that was done.
mediacongo
*To Remind,
*To add, I see where,
Congo demands $17bn more in infrastructure investments from China deal
Congo’s state auditor has demanded an additional $17 billion of investments from a 2008 infrastructure-for-minerals deal with Chinese investors that is currently being renegotiated, documents seen by Reuters on Thursday showed.
President Felix Tshisekedi’s government has been revisiting the deal struck by his predecessor Joseph Kabila under which Sinohydro Corp and China Railway Group Limited agreed to build roads and hospitals in exchange for a 68% stake in Sicomines, a cobalt and copper joint venture with Congo’s state mining company Gecamines.
Under the Sicomines deal, the Chinese investors committed to spending $3 billion on infrastructure projects, but the state auditor – Inspection Generale des Finances (IGF) – demanded that commitment be increased to $20 billion, to reflect the value of the mining concessions that Gecamines contributed to the deal.
He has previously defended the deal, saying it had driven development for Congo’s people and that Sicomines would invest more as production increased.
So far, Sicomines has only spent $822 million on infrastructure investments, according to the IGF report seen by Reuters.
The auditor also called for an “immediate” $1 billion investment from Sicomines, and a commitment to 50% of the workforce on infrastructure projects being Congolese.
Among a list of 16 demands, the IGF called for the “renegotiation of the Convention to adjust and balance the duties and benefits of both parties and bring them into line with the value of their respective contributions”.
The auditor also demanded that Gecamines be given a bigger stake in Sicomines.
It currently has a 32% holding.
Congo’s finance minister Nicolas Kazadi told
Reuters last month that the government expects to reach an agreement on the Sicomines deal this year.
mining.com
Race to secure lithium supplies is heating up
- Piedmont lands investment, binding offtake from LG Chem
- Car makers could invest up to US$600bn over 10 years on battery investments
- Sayona’s North American Lithium restart is on track and on budget
The scramble to secure critical minerals needed for the energy transition – as is highlighted by governmental action such as the US Inflation Reduction Act – is continuing apace.
Piedmont Lithium has just
landed a $75m investment from South Korean chemical giant LG Chem – the parent of the world’s second largest battery cell maker, which included a binding commitment for the offtake of 200,000t of spodumene concentrate from its jointly-owned North American Lithium project over four years from the third quarter of 2023.
This comes
mere days after LG told Bloomberg that it was looking to secure its own raw material through potential partnerships and investments to establish a self-sufficient supply chain.
Meanwhile, LithiumAmericas has closed the initial US$320m tranche of its previously announced US$650m investment by automotive giant General Motors, which will be used to accelerate development of its Thacker Pass lithium project in Humboldt County, Nevada.
ARK Investment Management’s Sam Korus believes that others will seek to strike deals to secure lithium supplies while pointing out that global automakers have earmarked US$600bn for battery investments over the next 10 years.
Li-Bridge – a US public-private alliance committed to accelerating the development of a robust and secure domestic supply chain for lithium-based batteries – also warned that the US would still depend on imports despite an expected increase in domestic lithium battery demand of up to six times by 2030.
However, it noted that the
US could still capture some 60% of the economic value consumed by domestic demand for lithium batteries, generating US$33bn in revenues and creating 100,000 jobs.
What all this means is that we are likely to see further investments from battery and car manufacturers looking to lock in their supply chains and supportive government legislation such as the US Inflation Reduction Act are likely to play a key role in their decision making process.
Sayona Mining which is incidentally the majority partner at North American Lithium, certainly seems to think that the move from companies such as LG Chem will be positive, telling
fellow Stockhead reporter Jessica Cummins that its operations in Quebec will have a big role to play in closing some of the supply gap given its proximity to the US.
This is particularly true given that the Inflation Reduction Act provides tax credits to manufacturers with 40% or more (rising to 80% in 2027) of their raw materials coming from the US or nations with which it has free-trade agreements, which include both Australia and Canada.