🛑Largest DRC Cobalt Miners Quit Chamber of Commerce🛑 Largest miners in Congo quit chamber of commerce amid growing tax dispute
The largest miners in the Democratic Republic of Congo, including Randgold and Glencore, have quit the country’s Chamber of Commerce amid a dispute over a new mining code that is set to raise their taxes.
Seven companies, including China Molybdenum and Canada’s Ivanhoe, which together account for 85 per cent of the country’s production, said the chamber does “not adequately represent their interests.”
The action comes days after President Joseph Kabila signed a new mining code into law that is set to raise royalties on copper, cobalt and gold mining in the resource-rich country.
The royalty on cobalt, a metal used in electric car batteries, could rise fivefold to 10 per cent, if it is declared “strategic.” That comes just as carmakers from Volkswagen to Tesla are scrambling to secure supplies of the metal, which has doubled in price over the past year.
The Fdration des Entreprises du Congo is headed by Albert Yuma, who is also chairman of state-owned miner Gecamines. Gecamines has supported the introduction of the new mining code, and has vowed to renegotiate its contracts with international mining companies.
The seven companies said a legal and technical team had arrived in the capital Kinshasa “for engagement with the government on its new mining code.”
During a six hour meeting with Mr Kabila last week the companies said he had given them “an assurance that the questions raised by the industry would be resolved through transitional arrangements, mining regulations and agreements and guarantees that need to be considered after the new code was signed into law.”
The miners have 30 days to discuss this, they said.
The statement was signed by Randgold, AngloGold Ashanti, Glencore, Ivanhoe, Zijin Mining, MMG and China Molybdenum.
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