china signs big drc deal

11 july 2008

China signs big DRC deal

China has started work on the biggest contract ever in Africa’s DRC where it will build roads, hospitals schools and electricity in return for copper. The deal, estimated at US$9 billion, was concluded September 2007.

Under the deal China and DRC are to form a joint mining company, Socomin, which will mine copper, sell it and profits will pay off the investment in mining and infrastructure, all estimated at $12 billion. Up to 10 million tones of copper are expected to be sold in the next fifteen years, most of it to China. European observers have called the China DRC venture a “second colonization”. Despite DRC’s huge mineral deposits, it is one of the poorest countries in Africa. China is also drilling oil in Sudan, neighbor to DRC.