US firm inks pact to build $1.5 billion power line to Congo mines

Symbion Power unit Hydro-Link signed a preliminary agreement with the Democratic Republic of Congo to build a $1.5 billion transmission line to key copper and cobalt mines from hydropower sites in neighboring Angola.

The 720-mile (1,160-kilometer) project will deliver 1,200 megawatts of electricity to Congo’s main mining region, where projects often run diesel generators because the central African country can’t guarantee sufficient power.

“I’m delighted by this partnership and I urge American investors to follow suit,” Aime Sakombi Molendo, Congo’s minister of hydraulic resources and electricity, said after the signing at a US-Congo investment conference in Washington on Tuesday. The two countries are discussing a minerals, infrastructure and security pact that will promote private investment by US firms.

In a deal designed to resonate with President Donald Trump’s “America First” policy, Hydro-Link expects to award contracts to supply wire, insulators, hardware and other equipment to US-based manufacturers that may be worth more than 30% of the total project outlay.

The firm will seek a loan from the US Development Finance Corp. to cover about 70% of the project cost, said Paul Hinks, Hydro-Link’s chief executive officer and a founder of New York-based Symbion, which started out building transmission lines in Iraq in 2005. It will also request financing from the US Trade and Development Agency for feasibility studies and export credits from the US Export-Import Bank.

Swiss-based Mitrelli Group is partnering with Hydro-Link on the project, and US firm Sargent & Lundy is providing engineering design services, according to Hydro-Link.

The company will ship the electricity to a region in Congo with some of the richest deposits of copper, cobalt, zinc, lithium and manganese in the world, where a lack of power has hindered development.

Congo’s miners, including Ivanhoe Mines Ltd., Glencore Plc and CMOC Group Ltd., currently face a deficit of at least 1,500 megawatts, according to the mines ministry.

Hydro-Link already signed a related memorandum of understanding with Angola in June to ship the power from the country’s Lauca plant and other hydroelectric facilities across the border to the Congolese city of Kolwezi as soon as 2029.

“With the development of the mining sector, what we see is the next 10 years, it’s going to be a complete game changer for Congo, the supply of electricity,” Hinks said on Tuesday.

Congo liberalized its energy industry about a decade ago, allowing private firms to generate, transmit and market power, presenting a rare opportunity for energy companies, Hinks said.

“It’s one of the only countries in Africa where you can do this entire value chain privately,” he said.

(By Michael J. Kavanagh)