Feb. 5 (Bloomberg) -- The Democratic Republic of Congo, the world's biggest source of cobalt, plans a ``fast track'' process to conclude a review of mining licenses after an initial study showed all existing agreements were flawed. The new arrangement will include a ``brief and open appeal process,'' according to a statement issued today by public relations company Bell Pottinger. ``We actually found that we had not a single contract that was properly constituted,'' Congo's Vice Minister of Mines Victor Kasongo said in the text of a speech given today at the Indaba mining conference in Cape Town. ``What was meant to be a minor corrective has turned out to be multiple, major surgery.'' President Joseph Kabila's newly elected government began a review last April of existing mining deals with companies including Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold Inc. and Katanga Mining Ltd., with the aim of amending those deemed unfair to the state. The country's southern region is the source of more then two-thirds of the world's cobalt and a 10th of its copper. Each of the contracts reviewed by a specially appointed commission, which was advised by Duncan Allen, Ernst & Young and the Carter Center, have ``significant flaws,'' Kasongo said. The flaws include a ``massive'' undervaluation of the assets of state-owned copper producer Gecamines, which has joint ventures with most foreign mining companies in the country, as well as clauses that limit the sovereign power of government, he added.
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