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Namibia is the Latest African Country That Wants to Build a Railway to the Southern DRC’s Cobalt Mining Zone

by Eric Olander
File image of TransNamib train south of Keetmanshoop (Harald Süpfle/CC BY-SA 2.5)

Namibia is the latest in a growing number of African countries that wants to become the gateway for Congolese cobalt and other resources. The Namibian transport ministry just completed a feasibility study for a 770km railway that will connect the southern DRC mining hub of Lumbubashi with its port in Walvis Bay.

No word yet on who would finance a new railway like this, especially given the intense regional competition from Angola that recently awarded a concession to Chinese companies to manage the 1067km Benguela Railway that connects Lumbubashi with the Port of Lobito, which is also under Chinese management. Plus, Tanzania also has long wanted to link up the Port of Dar es Salaam with the southern DRC as part of its new standard gauge railway ambitions. (GLOBAL CONSTRUCTION REVIEW)

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