Manono Lithium: Benjamin Katabuka on the front line against Kinshasa
Creation date: Tuesday, May 20, 2025 01:15
Benjamin Katabuka is the latest pawn that KoBold Metals has just pushed into the chess game currently being played around the Manono deposit in the Democratic Republic of Congo. At the end of March 2025, the lawyer was appointed country general manager of the American mining junior backed by billionaires Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, even though the company currently has no operations in the country.
KoBold plans to apply for copper and cobalt exploration permits, but since January the company has been bidding for rights to the Manono lithium deposit, which it considers "to have
the potential to become a large-scale, long-life lithium mine ." It therefore appears that this is where Benjamin Katabuka will first have to prove himself.
The Manono lithium deposit is at the heart of a dispute between Australian company AVZ Minerals and Congolese state-owned company Cominière and its Chinese partner Zijin Mining before the arbitration tribunals. AVZ, which believes it was unfairly excluded from the project, still claims to hold rights to the site.
In its offer, KoBold proposed to end the litigation by providing "
appropriate compensation " to AVZ, in exchange for AVZ relinquishing its claims against Manono in its favor. The two companies announced that they had entered into a framework for "
AVZ to divest its business interests in the Manono lithium deposit to KoBold at a fair value ."
All that remains is to convince the Congolese authorities to join this arrangement, as giants like Rio Tinto have also shown interest in Manono. To achieve this, the American company has chosen Benjamin Katabuka, a profile that combines international legal expertise with field experience in the Congolese mining industry.
A lawyer by training, a graduate of the universities of Neuchâtel and Geneva, Pennsylvania, and a member of the New York bar, Benjamin Katabuka has built his career between North America, Europe, and Africa. After a stint as a consultant in Geneva, he established himself as a leading figure in the Congolese extractive industry with over a decade of experience.
From 2022 until his appointment, Katabuka was Managing Director of C. Steinweg Bridge in the DRC. This South African subsidiary of the Dutch logistics group C. Steinweg Group provides import-export services in the country. Previously, he worked for Freeport-McMoRan from Kinshasa. This American group operated the Tenke Fungurume copper-cobalt mine and developed the Kisanfu project, before selling them to China's CMOC.
Boaz Kabeya, intern
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Manono Lithium: American KoBold puts pressure on Kinshasa
Lithium: Rio Tinto also interested in the Manono deposit