NEWSECONOMY
Positive advances in Gécamines' research for lithium, tin and rare earths
August 24, 2023
Kiki Kienge
By
Kiki Kienge
The General of Careers and Mines (Gécamines / GCM) is the largest state mining company in the Democratic Republic of Congo, since its creation under Belgian colonization as Union Minière du Haut-Katanga, it had concentrated its operations on copper, then cobalt and was even one of the world's leading producers of these minerals.
During the last meeting of the Investing in African Mining Indaba in Cape Town, South Africa in February this month, the president of Gécamines, Alphonse Kaputo Kalubi
confirmed his company's desire to explore the minerals necessary for the transition to a low-carbon economy, including lithium, tin and rare earths:
“Our geologists will aim to organize prospecting campaigns at all our sites to search for lithium, tin, cobalt, coltan, titanium, wolframite, gold, rare earths, etcetera. “ , said Alphonse Kaputo
As Greater Katanga has enormous deposits that are still unexploited and undiscovered, Gécamines had already launched exploration campaigns to locate these minerals.
Director Alphonse Kaputo Kalubi had even invited national and international investors in a win-win partnership with Gécamines in this new business challenge for the exploitation of lithium, tin and rare earths.
From a source close to the Congolese mining company, the editorial staff of Kongopress has just learned that the search for minerals is going well, new deposits have already been detected by Gecamines geologists, all in Grand-Katanga.
According to this source, the leaders of the company are already in preliminary negotiations with foreign multinationals, which would have as objectives the creation of joint ventures in order to launch feasibility studies.
More than expertise, Gécamines has the world credibility and the first financial funds for the development of this new adventure of international magnitude of the Congolese mining giant.