Katanga-DRC new broom, Akanani platinum scale-up, the De Beers philosophy

New Katanga Governor Moise Katumbi has a burning desire to return Katanga to its former glory. In order to do that, he is of the firm opinion that investors must be given every facilitation in this mining province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). However, as a quid pro quo, he is equally insistent that those investing exercise the highest credibility and help to create economic building blocks from which the DRC can progress. As a first step, he banned the export of raw metals and minerals earlier this year on the grounds that such export was of no economic advantage to the DRC. Now his new broom has extended to those with reputational baggage. Read on page 16 of the print edition of Mining Weekly of his decision to deport controversial miner Billy Rautenbach back to Zimbabwe, which sends a second strong message to the global investment community that the province’s economic
revival is at too sensitive a stage to allow any doubts about the high reputational standards to which it is aspiring, or to allow situations to linger that have the potential to discredit the DRC as an investment destination.

Those in the know see Akanani as the new prince of platinum projects that will facilitate a substantial productivity surge in the manner in which it lends itself to mechanised bulk mining. It also presents a pool-and-share sweetener with neighbouring Anglo Platinum, its previous owner and neighbour. Lucky enough to secure 26% of this Lonmin asset is the ambitious black-owned Incwala Resources, which will no longer stand by as a passive investor, but become involved as a cooperator, as reported on page 6 of the print edition of Mining Weekly.

Jonathan Oppenheimer spells out De Beers’ interesting business philosophy on pages 12, 13 and 55 of the print edition of Mining Weekly.

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