The three interesting questions Kiki asks at the end of this article....
NEWSECONOMY
Lithium Manono: US$200,000 for 2 mining squares in 2017 to COMFORCE/Jason Brewer, 2021 they go to ZIJIN/Katamba Mining!
May 2, 2023
Kiki Kienge
By Kiki Kienge
Manon's lithium file is like a Chinese box, once you open the first one, it hides a second one and this one a third one, all of which keep secrets on contract files, share transfers, selling prices and others.
The DR Congo so far has not yet started the exploitation of one of the largest lithium deposits in the world, which should start normally this year, following the suspension of the DATHCOM exploitation permit by the Minister of Mines, Antoinette Nsamba Kalambayi .
At the moment the DATHCOM file, joint venture of COMINIERE with AVZ Minerals and DATHOMIR and that of the Sino-Congolese contract, seem to have taken over all the mining files in the media and even for the Congolese authorities.
But COMINIERE having signed several joint venture contracts with other partners on mining squares containing lithium, today we wanted to analyze the one with the company, Force Commodities RDC.
Force Commodities RDC, which had its headquarters at the time of signing the contract with COMINIERE in the Crow Tower building at the intersection of Boulevard du 30 juin and Batetela in the commune of Gombe, is a company owned by the Australian, Jason Brewer which would notably own other companies for the valuation and development of mining projects in Africa.
On November 11, 2017 COMINIERE, a Congolese State company, signs a joint venture contract with Force Commodities RDC, the same contract will be certified at the commercial court on October 16, 2020 as you will see in the photo. From this agreement came COMFORCE, a joint venture between the two companies with a capital of US$100,000 for 1,000 shares, distributed as follows.
- COMINIERE: 30%
- Strength Commodities: 70%
For two mining perimeters, No. PR12453 and No. PE13247 for an area of at least 400 square kilometers, Force Commodities only paid the modest sum of US$200,000, which was paid as a result;
- US$50,000 at the date of signing.
- US$150,000 in three installments of US$50,000 every three months from the date of signing the contract.
Force Commodities had the mission to study and identify a good technology to process Lithium, Niobium, Tantalum, Wolframite and Tin in its two perimeters. In November 2018 Force Commodities had even applied for the transformation of an exploration permit for its Kitotolo-Katamba lithium project in Tanganyika into a mining permit for 30 years at the Ministry of Mines.
But here in August 2021, the Chinese mining giant, ZIJIN signed a cooperation agreement with COMINIERE for two perimeters; the first is that of Force Commodities, the PR12453 and the second the "PE13427" according to the site of the ZIJIN group, thus creating Katamba Mining joint venture between ZIJIN and COMINIERE.
Strangely enough, on the list of COMINIERE partnerships, there is no permit that corresponds to the number 13427, but a mining square with the number 13247 exists on the list, which oddly is the one that belongs in particular to Force Commoditie in the contract signed with COMINIERE!
- Is it the same permit?
- How much were they valued at the time of sale by COMINIERE?
- Who was the seller, COMINIERE or Force Commodities?
- How much are the two mining squares worth today?
To conclude, in order to fully understand the situation, let's try to make a small comparison between two COMINIERE joint-venture agreements:
- In 2017, the Australians of AVZ Minerals for a purchase of 60% of the shares of DATHCOM from DATHOMIR, they had to pay 6,000,000 $US to COMINIERE and 750,000 $US to DATHOMIR, to then spend 75 million $US for the feasibility study and initial work in Manono.
- In 2017, Force Commodities paid US$200,000 to own 70% of the two licenses in Manono, to achieve nothing so far.
To get an idea of the evolution of the price of the shares of the lithium joint ventures of Manono, 1% of that of DATHCOM is worth no less than 10,000,000 $US currently.
QUESTIONING
- Why this feeling of disinterestedness of the Congolese authorities on its two perimeters which contain lithium and Katamba Mining of which the DR Congo owns 30%?
- If ZIJIN is a shareholder of Katamba Mining with 70%, why not invest in the two mining squares for the exploitation of lithium, rather than go after the 15% of DATHCOM?
- How did ZIJIN come into possession of the 70% of Katamba Mining and how much did he pay?