Katanga Mining

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Katanga Mining Limited
TSX: KAT
Industrymining
Founded1996[1]
Number of employees
6,400[2]
ParentGlencore
Websitewww.katangamining.com

Katanga Mining Ltd is a mining company operating in the Democratic Republic of the Congo with its headquarters in Canada. Katanga Mining operates a major mine complex in the Congo's Katanga Province, producing refined copper and cobalt. It claims to have the "potential of becoming Africa's largest copper producer and the world's largest cobalt producer."[3]

History[]

Katanga paid US$452 million in cash to Nikanor shareholders. In January 2008 Nikanor was merged into Katanga Mining.[3] Katanga Mining Ltd is 86% owned by Swiss commodity trader Glencore.[2]

A joint venture of Katanga Mining (75%) and Gécamines (25%) began mining Tilwezembe, an open-pit copper and cobalt mine, in 2007.[4] In November 2008, Katanga Mining said they had temporarily suspended mining at Tilwezembe and ore processing at the Kolwezi concentrator due to the depressed price of cobalt.[5]

Katanga Mining was purchased by Glencore in 2020 and it was de-listed from the Toronto Stock Exchange.[6]

Corruption allegations[]

The release of the Paradise papers in 2017 revealed details of the 2008-2009 negotiations between Katanga and the congolese state owned Gécamines. Due to an impasse in negotiations, they called in the businessmen Dan Gertler to act as a mediator. Along with an indirect personal stake in the Katanga project, Gertler had a close personal relationship with the Congolese president's top advisor , and allegedly passed along millions in bribes on behalf of Och Ziff Capital Management.[7][8]

Canada required a $20 million fine from the company in 2019 due to unclear relationship with the Congolese authorities.[9]

KCC[]

Katanga Mining jointly owns the Kamoto Copper Company SARL (KCC) with Gécamines. KCC SARL produces copper and cobalt at the Kamoto concentrator, the Luilu metallurgical plant, the Kamoto underground mine and two oxide open pit resources in the Kolwezi district.[10] As of March 2010 the open pit Kananga Mine was also the property of KCC. The mine was not active.[11]

The Dima mines, consisting of Mashamba East, Mashamba West and Dikuluwe Open Pit were originally owned by the state-owned Gécamines before majority rights were sold to Katanga Mining and Nikanor in the early 2000s.[12] In January 2008 Katanga Mining acquired Nikanor plc for $452m.[1] Following the friendly merger of the Katanga Mining and Nikanor assets, there was speculation that the Dikuluwe and Mashamba West deposits were being transferred to Gécamines, and would be exploited by a joint venture owned 32% by Gécamines and 68% by a Chinese consortium.[12] In February 2008 it was confirmed that Katanga Mining was selling Dikuluwe and Mashamba West to Gécamines for $825 million.[13] In February 2017 Glencore (LON:GLEN) purchased nearly all of Gecamines interests in Katanga and the larger Mutanda mine. The smaller Katanga mine is remaining closed during 2015-2017 while new processing facilities are constructed. Prior to 2015 Katanga produced 113,000 tonnes/yr of copper while Mutanda continues to produce over 210,000 tonnes/yr.

References[]

  1. ^ a b Katanga Mining, History Archived 2011-11-10 at the Wayback Machine
  2. ^ a b Glencore, Katanga Mining Archived 2011-06-07 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ a b "History". Katanga Mining. Archived from the original on 2011-11-10. Retrieved 2011-11-16.
  4. ^ "An Independent Technical Report on the Material Assets of Katanga Mining Limited..." (PDF). SRK Consulting. 17 March 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 May 2012. Retrieved 2011-11-06.
  5. ^ "Kolwezi Concentrator Update" (PDF). Katanga Mining. November 21, 2008. Retrieved 2011-11-06.
  6. ^ "Glencore to take Toronto-listed Katanga Mining private at 100% premium". Financial Post. April 22, 2020.
  7. ^ Doherty, Ben (2017-11-05). "The inside story of Glencore's hidden dealings in DRC". the Guardian. Retrieved 2021-12-07.
  8. ^ Patterson, Scott; O’Brien, Rebecca Davis (2018-07-05). "U.S. Probes Ties Between Glencore, Diamond Merchant Under Sanction". WSJ. Retrieved 2021-12-07.
  9. ^ Lambert, Fred (15 January 2020). "Tesla is looking to secure controversial cobalt from Glencore to produce batteries". Electrek.
  10. ^ Katanga Mining, Company profile
  11. ^ Tim Henderson (31 March 2010). "A Technical Report on the Material Assets of Katanga Mining Limited Katanga Province, DRC" (PDF). Katanga Mining. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 April 2012. Retrieved 2011-11-17.
  12. ^ a b Barry Sergeant (29 Jan 2008). "Katanga Mining's DRC/China copper/cobalt conundrum". MineWeb. Retrieved 2011-11-10.
  13. ^ Liezel Hill (8 February 2008). "Katanga agrees to sell DRC deposits to govt for $825m". Mining Weekly. Retrieved 2011-11-10.
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