China state firm discusses major new copper mine in Congo

A Chinese state-owned company is proposing to develop what could become one of the world’s biggest copper mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

A unit of China Railway Group Ltd., known as CREC, met with Congolese Mines Minister Louis Watum on Thursday to discuss the project that’s anticipated to produce between 200,000 and 500,000 tons of copper a year, according to statements published by the ministry.

Congo’s copper output has more than tripled over the last decade, cementing its status as the world’s second-largest supplier of the key metal, behind only Chile. While Chinese companies account for most of that production, the US is trying to increase its presence in the central African country’s booming mining sector.

The proposed mine is in the central Kasai-Oriental province rather than the Katanga region in southeast Congo, where all the currently operating copper mines are located. The potential project would be a joint venture between a CREC subsidiary and a state-owned diamond company known as MIBA, one of the statements said.

Kasai-Oriental is the heart of Congo’s diamond industry.

President Felix Tshisekedi is “keen to see the project’s realization as soon as possible,” the mines ministry said, without providing any details on the size of the investment or development timelines.

Congo’s largest copper operations are CMOC Group Ltd.’s Tenke Fungurume mine, which produced 519,000 tons of copper last year, and Kamoa-Kakula, a joint venture between Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. and Zijin Mining Group Ltd. that supplied 400,000 tons in 2025.

CREC is already a major shareholder in Sicomines, a project established nearly two decades ago as part of a multibillion-dollar minerals-for-infrastructure deal between Congo and China. That company produced almost 250,000 tons of copper last year. CREC also owns a stake in a smaller copper operation known as COMILU.

Tshisekedi’s government signed a minerals partnership with the US in December that grants American investors preferential access to some of Congo’s abundant reserves of metals, including copper, cobalt, lithium and tantalum. The country has assumed an important role in President Donald Trump’s ambitions to reduce US dependence on China for a range of mineral products.

(By William Clowes)