UAE delegation signs $1.9 billion mining partnership with Congo

A delegation of United Arab Emirates officials signed a $1.9 billion partnership to develop several mines in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

The deal was signed Monday with state miner Societe Aurifere du Kivu et du Maniema, or Sakima, Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi’s office said in a statement on its website. The UAE’s minister of state in the ministry of foreign affairs, Shakhbut Nahyan Al Nahyan, led the delegation to Kinshasa, Congo’s capital.

The partnership “will make it possible to set up more than four industrial mines which should connect the provinces of South Kivu and Maniema,” the president’s office said. The statement gave no details on the mines or minerals involved.

South Kivu and Maniema are rich in gold, tin ore and tantalum. The two provinces have suffered from decades of violence by armed groups, which sometimes support themselves through the illicit mineral trade.

The UAE’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs didn’t immediately respond to an emailed request for comment on Tuesday.

A separate joint venture between Congo’s government and a UAE company, Primera Group Ltd., began shipping artisanally mined gold from South Kivu earlier this year.

(By Michael J. Kavanagh)