no longer alone in there.

BHP, Anglo Shun Congo Risks to Expand as Copper Soars (Update1)
Feb. 7 (Bloomberg) -- BHP Billiton, Anglo American Plc and First Quantum Minerals Ltd., spurred by record copper prices, are developing mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo three years after a war that killed almost 4 million people.

``It's the holy grail of the copper industry,'' First Quantum Chief Executive Officer Clive Newall said in a Jan. 25 interview from London. Companies ``are saying: to hell with political risk, we just have to be here.''

First Quantum, based in Vancouver, and Anglo American and BHP Billiton, the world's biggest mining companies, are digging mines and staking exploration claims in Congo's Katanga province, an area that boasts 10 percent of the world's copper.
Copper for delivery in three months has more than tripled during the past three years and rose to a record $5,100 a metric ton in London today. The price of cobalt, typically mined with copper, almost doubled to $14.46 a pound during the same period. Congo holds 36 percent of the world's cobalt's reserves.

Shares in BHP Billiton's South African stock closed down 1.38 rand at 109 rand. Anglo American fell 3.75 rand to 22775 rand, or 1.62 percent, after falling as much as 3 percent.

Conference Appearances

Congo Minister of Mines Ingele Ifoto is scheduled to speak at the Investing in African Mining conference in Cape Town, which runs from today through Feb. 9. First Quantum, Katanga Mining Ltd., Tenke Mining Corp., Anvil Mining Ltd., Moto Goldmines Ltd. and Banro Corp., all of which have operations or are exploring for copper and gold in Congo, will hold presentations in Cape Town and at another conference in Livingstone, Zambia, on Feb. 10 and 11.

``The Congo is so rich in mineral wealth, you can't ignore it,'' said Gerhard Kemp, head of resource corporate finance at Rand Merchant Bank in Johannesburg. ``You don't want to be the last guy at this party.''

BHP, based in Melbourne, has sent geologists to drill about 20,000 square kilometers of land adjoining First Quantum's concessions in Katanga, the maximum allowed, Newall said.

BHP declined to disclose the size of its landholding because prospecting is at ``an early stage,'' company spokeswoman Bronwyn Wilkinson said in an e-mail from Johannesburg. The company didn't want to comment further.

Anglo-American venture

Anglo American has a joint venture with London-based Mwana Africa Plc to prospect for copper and cobalt in the southern Congo, Anne Dunn, a spokeswoman for Anglo said by phone from Johannesburg yesterday. Anglo, based in London, has an option to take a stake in the project if Mwana finds a deposit, Dunn said.

Newall on Jan. 18 made a C$189 million hostile bid for Canada's Adastra Minerals Ltd. to consolidate First Quantum's position as the largest miner in Congo.

Katanga's capital, Lubumbashi, was a ``lot scarier'' when he first visited in 1997, less than 12 months before the four-year conflict erupted, Newall said. Now, he's betting elections due on March 25, the first in nearly four decades, will let companies exploit copper, cobalt, diamonds, gold, coltan and tin.

In the three years since troops from seven other African countries withdrew from Congo and United Nations peacekeepers moved in, First Quantum has dug one mine, bought a second and found a third. Its stock has surged more than 10-fold over that period, reaching a record of C$40.88 in Toronto on Jan. 27.

``Lubumbashi was very militarized and very rough back then,'' Newall said. ``There were a lot of burnt-out buildings and lot of small boys with big guns, stoned out of their brains.''

More Interest

Increased interest in Congo, sparked by record metal prices, is mirrored elsewhere in Africa as mining companies double their 2005 investment in the continent to $3.5 billion from the previous year, according to Magnus Ericsson, an analyst at Stockholm-based Raw Materials Group.

``The investment climate in Africa is improving rapidly in general,'' Ericsson said. ``Investments are also under way in Mauritania, Angola and Zimbabwe in spite of political problems in some of the countries.''

Revenue from copper, which provided almost two-thirds of Congo's foreign earnings in the 1960s, are needed to help rebuild the country and pay government troops, who otherwise prey on civilians, Caty Clement, central Africa project director for the International Crisis Group, said in an interview from Nairobi.

Parts of Katanga province, an area the size of France, are becoming more violent as election campaigns begin, Clement said. Politicians are stoking tensions between ethnic groups to win votes from the province's 4.1 million inhabitants, she added.

Katanga's copper mines may remain insulated from any violence. They lie at the country's southernmost point, almost 1,000 miles from the capital, Kinshasa, and the more volatile northeast, Tara O' Connor, managing director of risk consultants's South African practice, said in a Jan. 27 interview.

``Peaceful elections, with a result that all sides accept, are crucial,'' O'Connor said. ``The lack of an elected government is a stumbling block for a lot of companies that have issues with compliance and good, clean