And…That’s How It’s Done in the Congo: Chinese Mining Venture Settles $17 billion Claim With a $500 Million Check

Stanis Bujakera Thisamala is a prominent Congolese journalist reporting for the Paris-based publication Jeune Afrique and the Reuters news agency among other outlets.

Negotiators for the state-owned China Railway Engineering Corporation (CREC) finalized a deal with the Congolese government to pay for $500 million of new infrastructure this year.

While that may sound like a lot of money, it’s a lot less than the $17 billion that was demanded in a report published last week by the state auditor, who accused CREC and its other Chinese partners in the copper/cobalt mining joint venture known as Sicomines of failing to fulfill their promise to build infrastructure in the DRC.

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by Eric Olander

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