Katanga Mining Limited
TSX: KAT
Industrymining
Founded1996[1]
DefunctJune 2020
Fatemerged into Glencore
Number of employees
6,400[2]
Websitewww.katangamining.com

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

Katanga Mining formed two joint-venture projects with state-owned Gécamines to develop the mining complex: Kamoto Copper Company (KCC) and DRC Copper and Cobalt Project (DCP).

Assets and ownership

The company was first listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange in August 1997.[4]

In January 2008 Katanga Mining acquired Nikanor plc for $452m.[1][3]

Katanga Mining was purchased by Glencore in 2020 and it was de-listed from the Toronto Stock Exchange.[5][6]

DRC Copper and Cobalt Project

DRC Copper and Cobalt Project (DCP) began mining Tilwezembe, an open-pit copper and cobalt mine, in 2007.[7] In November 2008, Katanga Mining said they had temporarily suspended mining at Tilwezembe and ore processing at the Luilu refinery in Kolwezi due to the depressed price of cobalt.[8]

Kamoto Copper Company

See also: Kamoto mine

Kamoto Copper Company (KCC) owns a large mining complex near Kolwezi that includes Kamoto mine, Mashamba East, KTE underground mine, Etang South underground mine, KOV mine, and the T17 mine. Ore from these mines is processed at the Kamoto concentrator and the Luilu metallurgical plant.[9][10][11] As of 2010 the open pit Kananga Mine was also the property of KCC. The mine was not active.[12]

The Dima mines, consisting of Mashamba East, Mashamba West and Dikuluwe mine were originally owned by the state-owned Gécamines before majority rights were sold to Katanga Mining and Nikanor in the early 2000s.[13] Following the merger with Nikanor in 2008, Katanga sold Dikuluwe and Mashamba West to Gécamines for $825 million.[14][13] In February 2017 Glencore 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

Incidents

February 2015, an overturned truck spilled 60 cubic metres of sulphuric acid.[15]

In January 2018, a dike broke at Kamoto mine, causing a sodium hydrosulphide spill that damaged crops and killed fish. Four hundred and sixty households were affected. Soil contamination had not been cleaned up later in 2018.[15]

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 Augustin Katumba Mwanke, and allegedly passed along millions in bribes on behalf of Och Ziff Capital Management.[16][17]

Canada required a $20 million fine from the company in 2019 due to unclear relationship with the Congolese authorities.[18]

References

  1. ^ a b Katanga Mining, History Archived 2011-11-10 at the Wayback Machine
  2. ^ 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. ^ Reid, Helen; Shabalala, Zandi (2020-04-22). "Glencore's Congo unit Katanga Mining to go private, warns of possible COVID-19 impact". U.S. Retrieved 2022-05-29.
  5. ^ "Glencore to take Toronto-listed Katanga Mining private at 100% premium". Financial Post. April 22, 2020.
  6. ^ "Katanga Mining Completes Amalgamation Transaction". Cision. 2020-06-03. Retrieved 2022-08-04.
  7. ^ "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.
  8. ^ "Kolwezi Concentrator Update" (PDF). Katanga Mining. November 21, 2008. Retrieved 2011-11-06.
  9. ^ "Kamoto Mine, Lualaba, Democratic Republic of Congo". Retrieved 2023-01-16.
  10. ^ Katanga Mining, Company profile Archived 2012-05-19 at the Wayback Machine
  11. ^ KATANGA MINING LIMITED. Management’s Discussion and Analysis For the three months and years ended December 31, 2016 and 2015. minedocs.com. Retrieved 2024-02-08
  12. ^ 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.
  13. ^ a b Barry Sergeant (29 Jan 2008). "Katanga Mining's DRC/China copper/cobalt conundrum". MineWeb. Archived from the original on 2013-01-03. Retrieved 2011-11-10.
  14. ^ Liezel Hill (8 February 2008). "Katanga agrees to sell DRC deposits to govt for $825m". Mining Weekly. Retrieved 2011-11-10.
  15. ^ a b "Glencore in the DR Congo: incomplete due diligence" (PDF). Bread for All Lenten Fund. 2018.
  16. ^ Doherty, Ben (2017-11-05). "The inside story of Glencore's hidden dealings in DRC". the Guardian. Retrieved 2021-12-07.
  17. ^ Patterson, Scott; O’Brien, Rebecca Davis (2018-07-05). "U.S. Probes Ties Between Glencore, Diamond Merchant Under Sanction". WSJ. Retrieved 2021-12-07.
  18. ^ Lambert, Fred (15 January 2020). "Tesla is looking to secure controversial cobalt from Glencore to produce batteries". Electrek.
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