UAE signs $1.9 bln mining deal with Congo

UAE officials signed a $1.9 billion mining deal on Monday to develop several mines in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

The deal was signed with state miner Societe Aurifere du Kivu et du Maniema, or Sakima, the office of Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi.

Shakhboot Nahyan Al Nahyan, the UAE’s minister of state, led the delegation to Congo’s capital city of  Kinshasa.

According to the president’s office, the partnership “will make it possible to set up more than four industrial mines which should connect the provinces of South Kivu and Maniema.”

South Kivu and Maniema are areas rich in tantalum, gold, and tin ore, but have suffered from instability for decades of violence by armed groups.

Earlier this year, Primera Group Ltd. began shipping mined gold from South Kivu.

According to the IMF, Congo is the world’s largest cobalt producer as well as Africa’s top copper source where mining resulted in 8.5 percent economic growth in 2022.