From minerals to beer, Congo finance minister hunts for cash
The Democratic Republic of Congo is intent on revisiting mining contracts, rescinding and reselling unused oil permits and boosting taxes on beer to fund its development plans, according to Nicolas Kazadi, the country’s finance minister.
A country the size of Western Europe with 80 million inhabitants, DRC had a budget of just $4 billion last year and poverty is rampant, despite its vast riches of copper, cobalt and other natural resources.
The government needs more money to meet President Felix Tshisekedi’s pledges to provide free education and expand access to health care and the task of raising it has fallen to Kazadi, 55, an economist who previously served in the central bank and finance ministry.
While the International Monetary Fund has agreed to give the central African nation $3 billion in financing since Kazadi took up his post in April, and the African Development Bank and the World Bank will provide hundreds of millions of dollars more, that won’t be enough to fund the country’s proposed $10.5 billion budget for 2022.
The finance chief has his sights set on raising additional revenue domestically — a condition of the IMF loan — in part by revising deals made by the previous administration.
He also sees potential for an international bond sale, possibly by 2023.
Tax compliance
“We are fully aware that governance wasn’t good, and there are a lot of things that need to be revisited,” Kazadi said in an interview in the capital, Kinshasa, last month.
That will include scrutinizing mining contracts and making sure companies are paying their taxes.
The terms of two of Congo’s biggest mining deals — a $6.2 billion minerals-for-infrastructure agreement with China, and China Molybdenum Co.’s contract to run the Tenke copper and cobalt mine — are already under investigation, according to Kazadi.
The government has also begun an audit of state-owned copper mining company Gecamines “to know what kind of contracts they signed and who’s behind them,” he said.
The government is also trying to improve operating conditions for the mining industry, including reforming its value-added tax system with a view to making it more transparent and efficient, the finance chief said.
It’s also working on a payment plan to reimburse what may be more than a billion dollars owed to companies, Kazadi said.
Tshisekedi’s administration has backed a deal between state-owned mining company Sakima and closely held Dither Ltd. to process Congolese minerals including gold and coltan at new refineries in Rwanda, despite a long history of violence between the two countries.
“The idea today is to turn the page and to cooperate,” Kazadi said.
“We can’t stop ourselves from profiting from opportunities offered to us.”
https://copperbeltkatangamining.com/
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Lithium chemicals are fetching record prices
Lithium carbonate prices have surged to all time highs, with battery metals leading the charge among ASX 300 mining stocks this morning.
According to battery metals price monitors Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, lithium carbonate prices rose by 26.5% to RMB160,000/t, the equivalent of US$24,800/t in the fortnight to September 30.
That eclipses the high of US$24,750/t seen on March 30, 2018 and, according to BMI “marks a new era for the lithium industry”.
BMI is bullish about contract prices going forward as well, with the annual contracting period soon upon us and portions of the supply chain looking to move from quarterly to monthly contracts to capture more of the price upside currently on offer.
“Looking forward, record high spot transactions are likely to incentivise a strong upward revision of contract prices in Q4 as new deals and pricing breaks are negotiated for the start of 2022,” BMI analysts said.
“Historically, supply contracts are negotiated in Q4 and can be influenced by sentiment in the spot market.
It is this revision that sparked the surge in lithium chemicals pricing in 2015, indicating that the start of 2022 could see further momentum in price rises.”
“Market contacts have also reported to Benchmark that they expect a larger proportion of the supply chain may look to implement monthly, rather than quarterly, price breaks, fuelling the surge further if typically discounted contracted volumes become more regularly based on escalating spot deals.”
Pilbara Minerals was up 5.08% at 12.15pm AEDT, with
Orocobre close behind at 4.14%, driving above a $5 billion market cap.
Moderna to invest $500 million in ‘state-of-the-art’ mRNA vaccine factory in Africa
www.marketwatch.com
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Food for thought on Mining the Monsters of Manono 
Fingers Crossed - Not anymore - Now a Thumbs Up for Sure
Cheers
Frank
*To Remind
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