Condition of COMINIERE to AVZ in the ongoing negotiations;...

Condition of COMINIERE to AVZ in the ongoing negotiations; "withdrawal of the arbitration claim at the ICC"

August 25, 2023
Kiki Kienge
By Kiki Kienge

Now in the Manono lithium mega-project in the province of Tanganyika in the Democratic Republic of Congo, nothing, no scenario would now be excluded.

Since 2016, the year of the creation of the joint venture DATHCOM MINING by COMINIERE and the Chinese group DATHOMIR, which saw the arrival in 2017 of the Australians of AVZ MINERALS, that the project for the development of one of the most rich lithium deposits in the world, fail to take off despite the feasibility studies carried out by AVZ MINERALS after its purchase of 60% of DATHOMIR's shares in the joint venture.

Political interference from the old and the new regime in the Manono project, management and not too Catholic collaborations between the partners of DATHCOM, commissions and retro-commissions have meant that today the partners of this joint venture all meet one way or another in national and international legal complaints.

Finally, the showdown between the then interim management of COMINIERE, which was confirmed by the Head of State, Félix Tshisekedi with Célestin Kibeya at the head, in particular the appointment as President of the Board of Directors of Lisette Tshibwabwa very close to the President of the Republic, who was particularly involved in the sale of the 15% of the shares of the Congolese State to the Chinese of ZIJIN, in order to achieve the long-awaited production of the exploitation of the lithium of Manono by this new staff.

The COMINIERE having almost recovered the 5% of the Mauritians of the MMCS, had actually owned 10% of the shares of DATHCOM and the majority of the shares divided between AVZ MINERALS and DATHOMIR.

Following the conflicts with the Australians of AVZ MINERALS, the management of COMINIERE supported of course by the power of Kinshasa, resolved to terminate the contract of the DATHCOM joint venture "in particular flouting the agreements" of 2017 between the partners, in order to leave with new contracts that would allow it to hold the majority of the Manono lithium project, after the sale of its own shares in the DATHCOM joint venture (according to the report of the General Inspectorate of Finance of the DR Congo).

"This termination of the contract at the initiative of COMINIERE SA took place on April 4, 2023, and following the consequences to be drawn from this termination, on April 7, 2023 COMINIERE SA assigned the Mining Cadastre (CAMI) to the Tribunal de Grande Instance of Kalemie. It is in partial execution of judgment RC 381S / RH 0242 rendered by the Tribunal de Grande Instance of Kalemie on May 3, 2023 between it and CAMI, that PR 13359 formerly sold to DATHCOM MINING SA under the permit transfer contract of January 13, 2017, has been reinstated in the name of COMINIERE SA. On May 9, 2023, CAMI partially executed this judgment, since it was noted by the latter in its register that the other concessions transferred to DATHCOM MINING SA ended up with other holders. are found with other holders. Can we read in an article in the weekly Géopolis for the month of July 2023.

COMINIERE SA plans, after its termination of the DATHCOM agreement, to sign three joint venture contracts on the entire 13359 permit of the Manono deposit, thus to increase its financial income and the creation of several job positions that the DATHCOMM agreement of 2017, of course not considering the future final decision of the Paris arbitration at the ICC on the part of AVZ MINERALS.

For the engineer, Céléstin Kibeya Managing Director of COMINIERE, “negotiations are underway with the Australian group of AVZ MINERALS”, which is the majority shareholder in DATHCOM SA. But wanting to integrate COMINIERE SA alone in Manono's new lithium partnerships, Céléstin Kibeya poses a condition to the Australians, “that of the withdrawal of the complaint to arbitration in Paris with the CCI by AVZ MINERALS. "

Célestin Kibeya would confirm in particular that the discussions between his team of COMINIERE and the leaders of AVZ MINERALS, would evolve in a good direction for both parties at this time...

In reality, the facts show that, if COMINIERE Se ignored the ongoing arbitration at the ICC, this decision would only have the effect of maintaining the status quo in the Manono lithium project, something that the DR Congo should at all costs avoided price seeing the new discoveries of lithium deposits in the world and the new techniques in the manufacture of batteries without the intervention of lithium.

According to Céléstin Kibeya, COMINIERE would be aware of the problems and damage to its interests following a circumvention or ignored the arbitration of Paris.

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