Primera: a sulphurous contract for a dangerous monopoly (Alfred Maisha)
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The elected representative of the electoral district of Bukavu in South Kivu, Alfred Maisha quotes the ministers Adèle Kayinda of the Portfolio, Antoinette N'Samba of Mines and Nicolas Kazadi of Finance, in the sulphurous file of Primeira.
The three ministers granted this firm under Emirati law exorbitant advantages for the exploitation of gold, cassiterite and cobalt in the provinces of North and South Kivu as well as Maniema.
It is a huge loss for the Republic, warns the elected representative of South Kivu.
The mail service of the office of the National Assembly received on Wednesday August 23, 2023 a file concerning a parliamentary control initiative by national deputy Alfred Maisha.
This is a written question addressed to three members of the Sama Lukonde government.
The Ministers Adèle Kayinda, Antoinette N'Samba and Nicolas Kazadi, respectively Minister of State in charge of the Portfolio, Minister of Mines and Minister of Finance, are concerned by this parliamentary exercise.
“Congolese companies and Congolese processing entities pay 12% of the value of each shipment of minerals for export.
Where Congolese companies pay 12%, Primera will only pay 3.5%. We have calculated only for coltan, the Congolese treasury pays 80% of its income during a month.
To see the flow, we will lose $500 million every month for the three provinces and for 25 years,” said MP Maisha.
Damning revelations that establish the existence of a real organized mafia in the sector.
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On leaving the office of the National Assembly, the elected UNC indicated that “the company Primera only brings 20 thousand dollars ($ 20,000) in royalties to the Congolese government.
And in the $20,000, the DRC pays $9,000 and the Emirati company brings only $11,000 to make a whole.
Surprising as it may seem, for the $11,000, the three members of the government grant a 25-year monopoly for gold, coltan, cassiterite, cobalt… in short, the three Ts for 25 years for the northern provinces -Kivu, South Kivu and Maniema.
It is unacceptable.
In terms of obligation, the DRC undertakes to force the Sakima company, which owns all these deposits, to sign an agreement with the Primera company for 25 years, for only $11,000.
Primera becomes the only company able to market Congolese gold, coltan, cobalt, cassiterite for 25 years,” MP Maisha complains.
And it's not over.
Primera is granted a privileged tax regime, several unprecedented exemptions, and where it has to pay a lot of money, and this at the cost of scandalous reductions, he laments.
For Coltan alone, Congolese companies pay, as treatment, 12% of the value of each commodity less than the cargo of minerals for export.
Details that send shivers down your spine.
Kayinda, Nsamba and Nicolas Kazadi have renounced the privilege of DRC sovereignty
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According to the member Sacred Union, the three members of the government mentioned above have renounced the privilege of the sovereignty of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
"I'm not making it up. The contract is there, I have it”, he certifies in front of the press to put the nation on alert in relation to this enormous shortfall.
Because, he underlines, the three members of the government put the DRC on an equal footing with a private company by saying that with regard to litigation or the execution of arbitration or judicial decisions arising from this convention, "the DRC will not mention its right to sovereignty or the immunities attached thereto”.
This amounts to saying that in execution of a judgment produced by Primera, the DRC runs the risk of losing significant assets: "we may end up with the People's Palace seized, the accounts of the Public Treasury seized, the Palace of the Nation seized, buildings and symbols of sovereignty not protected.
We say it's not normal, ”insists master Maisha.
The initiator of the parliamentary control addressed to the three members of the government disapproves of this joint venture agreement between the Congolese State and the company Primera.
At the end of this agreement, it is indicated that the Primera company and the Democratic Republic of Congo have together created two Primera RDC companies.
One is Primera Gold for the gold, and the other is Primera Metals for the 3Ts.
Advantages against the Congolese State
The NGO Le Congo N’est Pas à Vendre (CNPAV) claims that the contract provides very generous tax breaks.
For the next 25 years, Primera Gold will only pay a single rate of 0.25% (a benefit “not granted to any other entity”, according to the terms of the contract).
This represents 10 times less than the taxes that apply to other artisanal gold exporting companies.
Concretely, if Primera Gold achieves a turnover of one billion US dollars, the Congolese State will only receive 2.5 million in taxes.
Worse, Primera Gold exports raw gold for refining in the United Arab Emirates.
However, the Mining Code only authorizes refining abroad when this is not possible locally.
However, a refinery has been built in Bukavu.
“All of these benefits were granted while the beneficial ownership of Primera Gold and Primera Metals remains opaque.
Indeed, until now, the government has not yet disclosed the complete list of shareholders and their real beneficiaries”, deplores the CNPAV which urgently demands the publication of this list.
An organized mafia
Each Primera company brings only 20 thousand dollars and in the 20 thousand dollars, the DRC brings only $9,000 and the Primera company $11,000.
But because of the $11,000 dollars, the three members of the government concede a monopoly of exploitation for 25 years for gold, coltan, cassiterite, cobalt, in short, three Ts for the provinces of North Kivu, South- Kivu and Maniema.
“In terms of obligations, the Democratic Republic of Congo commits the owners of all these deposits to sign an agreement with Primera for 25 years.
Because of only $11,000, Primera is retained as the only company to be able to market Congolese gold, coltan, cobalt, cassiterite, for 25 years”, laments MP Maisha.
And it's not over.
"We grant the same company a privileged tax regime, several unprecedented exemptions", underlines Maisha.
And where she (Primera) has to pay is at the outrageous discount rate, just for the Coltan.
“So we said it was inadmissible.
We put the question to the members of the government concerned because, as you know, the conventional regime has been repealed by the new mining code.
Today, we are under the legal regime and all companies are treated in the same way”, justified the elected representative of South Kivu.
Maisha easily recalls that the President of the Republic says, and with good reason, that he wants to create Congolese millionaires.
“It is not by granting illegal exemptions to a foreign company that we are going to create Congolese millionaires,” he warns.
Finally, what seems even more serious in this case is in terms of the settlement of disputes.
The three members of the government have renounced the privilege of the sovereignty of the Democratic Republic of Congo and thus put the DRC on an equal footing with a private company.
Thus, for litigation or the execution of arbitral or judicial decisions arising from this convention, the DRC will not invoke its right to sovereignty or the immunities attached thereto.
In addition, the Sakima company, which the three members of the government are enjoining to sign joint venture contracts with the Primera company, is in trouble.
"This company has already signed contracts of the same nature with companies under Congolese law, which are not prepared to give up their rights", explains the national deputy.
These are the companies Amir SARL, CDMC SARL, STONE Mining Company.
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