I hope this is the final catalyst for Kobold or anyone interested to start putting serious offers in. Once this is signed you’d think that buying Manono off AVZ is significantly derisked so let the genuine offers roll in. ICSID is a good negotiating stick to have but personally would rather not go through years and years of trying to get money from a broke nation.
Fingers crossed things about to get serious
Manono-Kitolo mine
The
Manono-Kitolo mine is a former tin and
coltan mine, which also contains one of the largest
lithium reserves globally, in the
Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Original mine
The mine was run by
Géomines from 1915 to the mid-1980s, producing 140,000 tons of
cassiterite (
tin) and 10,000 tons of
columbite-
tantalite (
coltan).
Since the mine's closure, companies have focused on the large lithium reserves at the site.
In 2018 studies reported a significant high-grade lithium deposit, estimated to have the potential of 1.5 billion tons of lithium
spodumene hard rock situated in
Manono in central DRC.
Géomines
Géomines (
Compagnie Géologique et Minière des Ingénieurs et Industriels belges) was a Belgian mining company active in the
Belgian Congo and then in the
Democratic Republic of the Congo.
It was established in 1910, and exploited a large deposit in the southeast of the country to become one of the largest tin producers in the world.
Belgian Congo
The
Compagnie Géologique et Minière des Ingénieurs et Industriels belges (Géomines) was founded in 1910.
Géomines was formed as a prospecting company by the president of
John Cockerill, the metallurgical company, and geologists from the
University of Liège.
It found various kinds of mineral deposits, but the most important was tin.
A deposit of
cassiterite was found in 1910 in
Manono in
Katanga Province (now in
Tanganyika Province).
Géomines was given an exclusive concession in a large area. In 1915 extraction of cassiterite began in the Géomines concession, producing 150 tonnes per year.
The deposits were near the surface and sometimes as much as 30 to 60 metres (98 to 197 ft) thick.
With a monopoly on tin, Géomines followed the rational approach of extracting lower-grade ores while prices were high and higher-grade ores when prices were lower.
*I swear to the Lithium & Tin Gods, every time i hear this Song i think of AVZ / DRC / Manono
We Didn’t Start the Fire
Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnnie Ray
South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio
Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, television
North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe
Rosenbergs, H-bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom
Brando, "The King and I", and "The Catcher in the Rye"
Eisenhower, Vaccine, England's got a new queen
Marciano, Liberace, Santayana, goodbye
We didn't start the fire
It was always burning, since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No, we didn't light it, but we tried to fight it
Joseph Stalin, Malenkov, Nasser and Prokofiev
Rockefeller, Campanella, Communist Bloc
Roy Cohn, Juan Peron, Toscanini, Dacron
Dien Bien Phu falls, "Rock Around the Clock"
Einstein, James Dean, Brooklyn's got a winning team
Davy Crockett, Peter Pan, Elvis Presley, Disneyland
Bardot, Budapest, Alabama, Krushchev
Princess Grace, Peyton Place, Trouble in the Suez
We didn't start the fire
It was always burning, since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No, we didn't light it, but we tried to fight it
Little Rock, Pasternak, Mickey Mantle, Kerouac
Sputnik, Chou En-Lai, "Bridge on the River Kwai"
Lebanon, Charles de Gaulle, California baseball
Starkweather homicide, children of thalidomide
Buddy Holly, Ben Hur, space monkey, mafia
Hula hoops, Castro, Edsel is a no-go
U2, Syngman Rhee, Payola and Kennedy
Chubby Checker, Psycho,
Belgians in the Congo
Song by Billy Joel ‧ 1989
Countdown to the ICSID tribunal of AVZ vs DRC (Congolese).
avz-icsid-final-countdown.netlify.app