I'll disagree with your assessment. That facts are that,
1) Road 617 already exists to Manono and has existed for some time. This road is been rehabilitated and expanded after neglect and isn't being cut through virgin countryside.
2) You don't need a fully modern, paved road immediately for AVZ to get off the ground. You do need a rehabilitated road which current covers roughly the first half of the route to roughly Kiubo.
'The Chinese Firm Crec 7 has already rehabilitated the first 160 kilometres of this road, 21 of which have been built in single-layer coats'
New b
ridge completed near Dikuluwe on rehabilitated road.
View attachment 1113485
Bridges were being inspected by CREC7 for replacement in Tambo in July last year (Tambo is only 120km from Manono).
' These two bridges, the main object of our mission require rehabilitation as we can see in these illustrations.'
And the main centre road through Manono is also getting paved which will eventually link up to a rehabilitated road 617.
CREC 7 in Manono planning road construction
View attachment 1113505
Work has resumed following the end of the wet season.
3. There exist other transport options beyond road 617. The traditional path for exporting almost 120,000 tonnes of Tin ore (this is 1/3 of a proposed 360kt 6% spod starting operation in Manono) was west and then by barge. Barges capable of moving over 500 tonnes run between Kalemie and Kagome. In fact a train car barge once operated from Kalemie to Kagoma to Tanzania (there is a 1000/1067mm gauge change now since the DRC section upgraded to 1067mm but variable gauge carriages are a well used solution). We'll likely hear more about some northern option soon in an announcement as hinted in a past announcement.
In my mind, infrastructure is the biggest issue facing the Manono project but the fact that they were pumping out 120kt of ore from Manono for Belgium 50 years ago, shows that its been done before.