On the ground

View all →
Update · Essential

Kinshasa Now Has a Board for the Partnership. The Board That Can Move Money Has Met Once

A draft decree creating the Congolese task force was taken by the Council of Ministers on 11 September. It is being read as the partnership entering execution. It is not. Three separate bodies are being collapsed into one. The bilateral committee that sits between a Congolese asset and American development finance has not reconvened since February. The copper already arriving in the United States is not moving through any of them.

Essential | Analysis
Update · Essential

Chemaf Is a Restructuring Wearing a Flag, and Four Books Should Already Be Marking It That Way

Washington still calls Chemaf its flagship investment in Congo. Five and a half months after a USD 30 million equity close, Etoile had not restarted as of late July, creditors had agreed to forgo as much as USD 475 million of an USD 804 million stock, about USD 330 million remains, and the additional USD 260 million the owners told investors they need has not been shown as raised. Anyone holding residual debt, offtake, a Gécamines-linked right or another partnership-labelled distressed thesis is marking a restructuring, not a mine.

Essential | Analysis
Update · Essential

The Factory Floor Offer: How DRC’s Mines Minister Courted Beijing Without Selling It a Mine

For eleven months, Louis Watum Kabamba has made Chinese capital the same proposal in three cities: come to Kolwezi, build processing plants, obey the Mining Code. On the opening day of the 28th China Mining Conference in Tianjin, he made it a fourth time. The record shows what he offered, what he withheld, and what a treaty signed in Washington now forbids him to give.

Essential | Analysis

The reference desk

All registers →

Investment & Markets

View all →
Subscriber Access Platform

Unlock Complete US-DRC SPA Analysis

Subscribe for full access to weekly briefs, gated analysis, reference registers, and flagship dossiers.