Kinshasa, April 3rd, 2021 (CPA) – The workshop on the issue of local processing of copper concentrates, held from Tuesday March 29 to Thursday March 31st in Lubumbashi, called on mining operators operating in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), to support local initiatives by selling part of their production on site, the CPA learned on Friday from the Ministry of Mines.
The source indicates that during the said workshop, mining operators reflected on three key issues in the mining sector namely; the moratorium granted to mining operators on exports of copper and cobalt concentrates produced in the provinces of Haut-Katanga and Lualaba; reflections between miners, civil society organizations and other development actors as well as on the societal responsibilities of companies, namely the specifications and the allocation of 0.3% of annual turnover in favor of development community.
Regarding the granted moratorium which had been signed on October 12th, 2020 and which expires on April 12th, 2021, the workshop asked each operator to send, as a matter of urgency, a technical note justifying its difficulties, while specifying how to overcome them and for how long, in order to allow the Minister in charge of Mines, to sign moratoria on a case-by-case basis. Based on the observation that out of more than 300 (three hundred) mining titles concerned by the signing of specifications with local communities, and that to date, only 3 (three) companies in Haut-Katanga and 13 (thirteen) of Lualaba have signed their specifications.
This is how, continues the source, the participants in the workshop expressed the wish to see the supervising minister put pressure on all the holders of the mining rights granted, so that they develop and have them signed, within a short timeframe. , their specifications and see how to renegotiate so that the process of approval and notification of the signed specifications is compliant. As for the file on the 0.3% allocation, the participants deplored the blockage which is the basis of the non-application of this provision of the Mining Code for 3 years.
