Category: Mining
How Far Ahead Is China in the Battery Race? Pretty Far.
China is sprinting ahead in the global race for critical minerals used to make batteries for electric cars, leaving Western competitors scrambling to catch up. Chinese companies’ early investment into the extraction of lithium and cobalt in Africa was key to this success, according to a detailed new report by ...
Challenging Chinese Mining Contracts Isn’t About Politics, It’s About What’s Fair, Says DRC Finance Minister
DR Congo Finance Minister Nicolas Kazadi pushed back against the narrative that Kinshasa is specifically targeting Chinese companies over unfair mining contracts. The minister was adamant in his discussion with Financial Times correspondent Tom Wilson at the FT Commodities Global ...
Fierce Debate Underway in the DR Congo Over Whether China Has Met Its Infrastructure Development Obligations
The Congolese stakeholders in the controversial Chinese mining joint venture Sicomines are calling for further revisions to the controversial multibillion-dollar resource-for-infrastructure deal. At issue are stark differences in what the Congolese side believes it's owed in terms of infrastructure development and ...
China’s CMOC Set to Overtake Switzerland’s Glencore as the DR Congo’s Top Cobalt Producer
CMOC Group is forecast to overtake Swiss mining giant Glencore as the largest producer of cobalt when the Chinese company brings another massive mine online later this year. Cobalt is a critical ingredient used to manufacture batteries for electric vehicles and ...
Sino-Canadian Copper Mining Venture in the DRC Generates $434 Million in Profit
Canadian mining giant Ivanhoe released its 2022 full-year earnings on Monday that revealed the company made a robust profit of $434 million from the Kamoa-Kakula copper mine in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which it jointly operates with Chinese mining major Zijin Mining Group.
Huge Lithium Deposit in Found in Iran
The Iranian authorities say they found the world’s second-largest deposit of lithium in the mountainous province of Hamedan. At an estimated 8.5 million tons, the Hamedan lithium haul would be second only to Chile’s estimated 9.2 million ton deposit. It could ...
WEEK IN REVIEW: South Africa: Naval Drills | Ghana: Debt Crisis | DRC: Mining Contracts
Controversial joint naval exercises among South Africa, Russia, and China got underway this week off the coast of KwaZulu-Natal, prompting a fierce backlash from critics who blasted Pretoria for legitimizing Russia on the first anniversary of its invasion of Ukraine.
And…That’s How It’s Done in the Congo: Chinese Mining Venture Settles $17 billion Claim With a $500 Million Check
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 ...
Chinese Embassy in DR Congo Dismisses State Auditor Report That Demands $17 Billion in Additional Infrastructure
The Chinese embassy in the Democratic Republic of the Congo blasted a report published late last week by the state auditor in Kinshasa that called for an additional $17 billion of infrastructure as part of a 2008 infrastructure-for-minerals deal. In its report, the General ...
New Copper/Cobalt Trade Corridors Take Shape to Serve as Alternative to South Africa
Zambia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Angola will set up an agency to manage a logistics corridor linking them to Angola’s Lobito port. The move comes as South Africa's Durban port has faced repeated delays. A concession to manage the corridor was recently ...
China’s High-Profile Envoy to the DR Congo to Leave This Week
Zhu Jing, China’s outgoing ambassador, is making the rounds of Kinshasa to say goodbye before leaving the country later this week. He is vacating his post as part of a routine rotation. Zhu was a prominent voice for China as the DRC became ...
How the U.S. Aims to Compete With China in Critical Resource Mining
U.S. officials are speaking out about the urgency to diversify supply chains for critical resources that are now largely dependent on China, particularly rare earths, cobalt, and lithium that are all essential ingredients in manufacturing electric vehicle batteries. ...









