12 07 1 3 Bloomberg – Congo Minister Delays Copper, Cobalt Concentrate Export Ban (2)
The ban, which had been scheduled to start this month, is
supposed to compel mining companies to process metals and
minerals in Congo. Miners had complained that the country
doesn’t generate adequate electricity to process all of its
minerals and had asked for a delay.
“The moratorium is until Dec. 31, 2013,” Mines Minister
Martin Kabwelulu said in a mobile-phone text message yesterday,
without providing further details.
Congo was the world’s eighth-largest producer of copper and
the biggest miner of cobalt last year, according to the U.S.
Geological Survey. Power shortages have forced some miners to
install generators or buy electricity from neighboring Zambia to
run processing plants.
Glencore Xstrata Plc, Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc.
and Eurasian Natural Resources Corp. were the country’s largest
miners in 2012, responsible for 58 percent of copper production
and 56 percent of cobalt output, according to Mines Ministry
statistics.
According to provincial mining statistics from Katanga, at
least 13 miners exported concentrates of copper, cobalt or a
copper-cobalt concentrate last year. At least seven companies
exported cobalt hydroxide, which may be subject to the ban or to
increased taxes depending on the composition, according to an
April 5 order from the mines and finance ministries.
Katanga Tax
Congo’s Mines Ministry previously banned the export of
concentrated minerals in April 2010. That month, Katangan
Governor Moise Katumbi allowed mining companies to continue
exporting concentrated minerals if they paid a $60 per metric
ton tax.
Freeport, whose Tenke mine ships cobalt hydroxide, and West
Perth, Australia-based Mawson West Ltd. and Tiger Resources
Ltd., whose projects currently produce concentrated copper, have
said they don’t expect to be affected by the ban. Tiger is
building a new processing plant that will begin producing copper
cathode next year, the company said in a statement on its
website last month.
A spokesman for Glencore, which exported some concentrated
copper-cobalt in 2012, declined to comment when contacted by
phone today.
Glencore Expansion
The Baar, Switzerland-based company is scheduled to
complete an expansion of two of its projects this year that
could increase production of copper in cathode form to 470,000
tons per year, according to its first quarter report. Last year,
the company’s projects produced 164,500 tons of copper,
according to Mines Ministry statistics.
During the moratorium, companies shipping copper and cobalt
concentrate must send a request to the mines minister, along
with a copy of the processing contract, according to an order
from the mines and finance ministries dated July 4 and e-mailed
by the Mines Ministry today.
Companies also will be required to report final production
figures after processing and “are subject to payment of duties
and taxes due to the public treasury.”
Congo produced about 620,000 tons of copper in total last
year, according to the Mines Ministry.
ENRC didn’t respond to e-mail and phone messages requesting
comment.