Conrad's Congo Club / Mining stocks in the DRC

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La Quinta Works to Re-Negotiate Terms of Congo Joint Venture

http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/La...LAQ-916827.html

 

fu_k

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East Congo violence may spook mining investors

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/feedarticle/7993488

 

"Seen from abroad, it's 'Hey, here it goes again in Congo,'" said Michel Losembe, vice president at the Congolese Chamber of Commerce.

"People will see it as an alarm. They will say, 'maybe we have been too bullish on Congo and on its long-term stability'".

 

"The big impact is on sentiment because it is one country, and if the government becomes destabilised, which might happen, there will be additional country risk,"

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Zambia's Copperbelt Energy Corp. or CEC, the leading supplier of power to copper mines and Congo's state power utility, Societe Nationale d'Electricite, or SNEL, are planning to develop a 220-kilovolt power line to enhance capacity of the existing electricity interconnection between the two countries, Zambia state newspaper The Daily Mail reports Tuesday.

http://news.ino.com/headlines/?newsid=20081111008314

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Congo Mining Deals Face Delays Amid Struggle With Rebels

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1226589717...=googlenews_wsj

 

As the Congolese government grapples with rebels in the east of the country, officials have put on hold key decisions affecting the mining industry -- a delay that threatens to push back international investment plans there and undercut the country's efforts to kick-start its economy.

 

International companies have scrambled to secure mining rights in Congo. The country has vast reserves of cobalt, copper, tin and diamonds, but it has been wracked by years of civil war and cross-border fighting. Elections in 2006, the country's first in 40 years, appeared to ease instability.

 

A man reaches out to help two displaced children in eastern Congo. As the country continues to struggle with rebels, mining deals are being delayed, undercutting the country's efforts to boost its economy.

 

Congo's mining ministry recently completed a review of the state's contracts with international mining firms. It was one of a series of moves by African nations to seek better terms amid booming commodities prices. The ministry renegotiated some 60 concession agreements.

 

But Congo's lawmakers, preoccupied by recent fighting and a humanitarian crisis in the North Kivu province near Congo's eastern border with Rwanda, have failed to sign off on the new deals. Renegade Gen. Laurent Nkunda has surrounded the provincial capital of Goma and has threatened United Nations peacekeepers and government troops. Earlier this week, Angola said it would send troops to the country, raising fear the fighting could draw in other countries.

 

"This war in the east is taking all of the government's attention," said Deputy Minister of Mines Victor Kasango in a phone interview. "We are waiting for things to calm down," he said.

 

The revised mining contracts were seen as crucial to President Joseph Kabila's plans to replenish drained state coffers and repair infrastructure destroyed in years of fighting and neglect. The old deals had been handed out over the years by previous governments with terms that critics said were signed hastily and were overly attractive to foreign companies.

 

Mr. Kasango didn't provide details, but said the proposed new contracts would provide "good income opportunity in terms of taxation." Some companies have signed off on the new deals already, while others have said they'll contest any renegotiation. But the government must formally approve them as a first step.

 

Congo needs the additional money. The country's central bank last week trimmed its annual growth forecast for next year to less than 10%, from around 11%, citing waning demand for Congo's metals and unplanned violence-related spending. Craig Andrews, a World Bank analyst, said he'd be surprised if growth topped 6% next year. Congo's central bank governor warned last week that uncertainty surrounding the renegotiations has already slowed investment plans for foreign firms.

 

Analysts warn that mining companies working in the country -- among them BHP Billiton Ltd., which is exploring for diamonds -- could back away from fresh investment plans due to the contracts' new uncertainty. A BHP spokesperson declined to comment.

 

And some analysts say miners could use the delay and recent slump in commodities prices to force fresh contract talks, seeking better terms for themselves. Congo "has perhaps waited too long to clinch the deals, and the pendulum may have swung back in favor of the companies," said Patricia Feeney, executive director of Rights and Accountability in Development, a group that promotes corporate accountability.

 

"Deals may start to unravel," she said.

 

Write to Cassandra Vinograd at cassandra.vinograd@wsj.com

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DRC copper, cobalt mining halted

 

afrol News, 19 November - The mining company CAMEC today announced it had "temporarily halted" all its copper and cobalt production in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), not because of the war, but because of a sudden stop of demand in China. ...

 

http://www.afrol.com/articles/31735

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...Gem has stopped all alluvial and dredging exploration activities in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) with immediate effect, and put operations in the country on care and maintenance “for an indefinite period”. The exploration work looking for kimberlite pipes in the DRC will continue....

http://www.miningmx.com/diamonds/901060.htm

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Tiger... reviewing OK

http://www.stocknessmonster.com/news-item?...SX&N=430684

 

 

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Zambian firm reduces power supply to copper mines

Wed Nov 26

http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssIndustr...Q62779420081126

 

LUSAKA, Nov 26 (Reuters) - Zambia has cut by 16 percent the 540 megawatts power supplied to its copper mines after state utility Zesco rationed power following the shutdown of a major transmission line for repairs due to last one month.

 

The Copperbelt Energy Company (CEC), the sole distributor of power to the mines, said it had reduced electricity supply at the request of Zesco, which expects to complete the repairs by the second week of December.

 

At the same time, Zambia said it plans to upgrade transmission lines to source more power from the Democratic Republic of Congo, CEC chairman Hanson Sindowe said on Wednesday.

 

His firm, which purchases power from Zesco for distribution to the mines, reduced supply despite rising power demand at the country's two major mines, Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) and Mopani Copper Mines.

 

"We have reduced by 16 percent the amount of power to the mines and that is quite a lot, especially at a time when demand is rising. We have normally been supplying the mines with 540 megawatts," Sindowe told Reuters.

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new in congo club:

 

Tantalium in the DRC

 

 

http://www.shamikaresources.com

 

 

SEE ALL CONGO CLUB COMPANIES HERE:

http://www.dyor.de/congoclub-main.html

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Metorex Declines Most on Record on Share Sale, Loan (Update2)

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=206...mp;refer=africa

 

Metorex said yesterday it would raise 922 million rand ($93 million) to cover higher-than-planned investment costs at the Ruashi project in the Democratic Republic of Congo and delays to the start of operations. The company said Aug. 21 it expected project costs to rise to as high as $290 million.

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Australia Talison shuts tantalum mine on low demand

http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssIndustr...D34128920081126

 

The privately-held company said this year its Wodgina mine in west Australia supplied more than 30 percent of the world's tantalum, which is used in mobile phones, digital cameras, gaming consoles and computers.

 

But the global financial crisis has caused a severe downturn in worldwide purchases of consumer electronics, resulting in lower tantalum demand, leading to closure of the mine pending improved conditions, the company said.

 

Talison's customers have sufficient tantalum for the near future with no need to extend their current supply contracts, it said.

 

Also, a trend to reduce material costs in the electronics supply chain was encouraging more purchases of lower-priced tantalum from central Africa, and particularly from the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to the company.

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Loncor announces closing of acquisition

TORONTO, Nov. 28 /CNW/ - Loncor Resources Inc., (formerly Nevada Bob's

International Inc.) (the "Company") ("TSXV" - "NBI.U") is pleased to announce

that it has completed its previously announced acquisition (the "Acquisition")

of 100% of the outstanding shares of Loncor Resources Inc. (referred to herein

as "Old Loncor" prior to the Amalgamation (as defined below)) from Arnold T.

Kondrat, a director and officer of the Company, in exchange for 3,000,000

common shares of the Company, each such common share valued at US$0.17, for an

aggregate purchase price of US$510,000. Immediately after the closing of the

Acquisition, Old Loncor amalgamated (the "Amalgamation") with Nevada Bob's

International Inc. (the Company as it was named prior to the Amalgamation) and

the Company changed its name to "Loncor Resources Inc.". Pursuant to the

Amalgamation, all of the shares of Old Loncor were cancelled and the

shareholders of the Company and their respective holdings remain the same.

As a result of the completion of the Acquisition, the Company is now the

holder of a 100% interest in Loncor Resources Congo SPRL, which controls four

exploration permits in the Bas Congo Province of the Democratic Republic of

Congo (the "DRC") and 46 exploration permits in North Kivu in the DRC.

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Congo’s Gecamines Says It Failed to Resolve All Contract Issues

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=206...mp;refer=africa

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Hard times to be a MWANA shareholder

 

Withdrawal and proposed termination of diamond exploration agreements

2 December 2008

 

Mwana Africa PLC has received from BHP Billiton World Exploration Inc notice of BHP Billiton's withdrawal from the kimberlite diamond exploration agreement entered into between BHP Billiton and SouthernEra Diamonds Inc, with effect from 31st December 2008. BHP Billiton has also proposed to terminate the exploration agreement entered into between BHP Billiton and Gravity Diamonds Limited.

 

Gravity and SouthernEra were acquired by Mwana in 2007 for a total consideration of £68m. Prior to these acquisitions, BHP Billiton owned shares in both Gravity and SouthernEra, which it tendered in exchange for Mwana shares as part of each transaction.

 

Mwana has subsequently been in negotiation with BHP Billiton to take forward discussions including combining the Gravity and SouthernEra agreements into a single exploration agreement, and the potential for BHP Billiton to wholly fund the exploration programme. These discussions, including agreement of exploration budgets, were not concluded. Following BHP Billiton's withdrawal from the SouthernEra agreement and proposed termination of the Gravity agreement, all options including the closure of all kimberlite diamond exploration in the DRC, are being considered by Mwana.

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THE KANSTEINER CONNECTION

http://rockthetruth.blogspot.com/

 

The Moto Gold Project is located in the Kilo Moto goldfields in the north east of the DRC, some 150 kilometers west of the Ugandan border town of Arua.

 

Kilo Moto was President Joseph Mobutu’s private mine, but the project, at various stages, involved powerful Western interlocutors: Belgians Yves Le Norvan and the Damseau family; Roger Lemaire, a Houston (TX) insider; and an Israeli military agent identified as David Agnon.[68]

 

Kilo Moto’s gold, then as now, usually exited Congo (Zaire) through remote airstrips. [69]

 

The present Moto Gold Mining "lease" — a massive land grab corruptly obtained — covers an area of approximately 1,841 square kilometers and involves sites at Durba, Watsa and Doko.

 

Moto Gold’s partners in Orientale include Siemens and Ken Overseas. Siemens director Tiego Moseneke is also a director of PetroSA, a new South African oil minor poaching DRC oil concessions on Lake Albert. [70] Ken Overseas Company is involved in the Minière de Bakwanga (MIBA) diamond mines in Congo’s Mbuji-Mayi province. In their reports on war and plunder in DRC, the United Nations Panel of Experts named Ken Overseas in a MIBA mining consortium linked to Belgian tycoon Philippe de Moerloose and Israeli mining magnate Dan Gertler; both men have been flagged for arms trafficking. [71]

 

Walter Kansteiner III is one of the shadiest architects of Congo’s troubles. The son of a coltan trader in Chicago, Kansteiner was Assistant Secretary of State for Africa under G.W. Bush and former "National Security" insider and member of the Department of Defense Task Force on Strategic Minerals under Bill Clinton. Kansteiner’s speech at The Forum for International Policy in October of 1996 advocated partitioning the Congo (Zaire) into smaller states based on ethnic lineage; Laurent Kabila was marching across Zaire at the time. [72]

 

The balkanization of Congo appears to be a major objective behind the current organized chaos in the Great Lakes region. [73]

 

Further, it is obvious that conflicts from within the U.S.—between the Department of State, Pentagon and intelligence agencies — are translating to regional warfare on the ground in, especially, Sudan, Uganda, and Congo.

 

Kansteiner is a trustee of the Africa Wildlife Foundation — another profit-based "conservation" corporation tied to Conservation International, the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund

and the Jane Goodall Institute — entities whose front of gorilla and chimpanzee protection hides a deeper agenda. [74] It is not surprising to find that one of the AWF’s premier sponsors is Barrick Gold. Kansteiner is also linked to Richard Leakey’s paramilitary front organization Wildlife Direct, and to the Africa Conservation Fund, a shady Washington D.C. entity. [75]

 

Kansteiner is a director of the precious metal firm Titanium Resources Group, a company deeply tied to Sierra Rutile Limited, a firm pivotal to the bloodshed in Sierra Leone. [76]

 

Sierra Rutile Ltd. director Sir Sam Jonah reportedly helped finance Rwandan RCD rebel groups in DRC while he was a CEO of Ashanti Goldfields; Jonah is also a director for Moto Gold. [77]

 

Sierra Rutile is owned by Max and Jean-Raymond Boulle and Robert Friedland, "Friends of Bill" Clinton who are linked to clandestine networks of offshore holdings and front companies involved in weapons trafficking, money laundering and human rights atrocities from Burma to the Congos to Mongolia. [78]

 

On April 28, 2008, the ICC issued an international arrest warrant for militia commander Bosco Ntaganda, former commander of the Forces Patriotiques pour la Libération du Congo (FPLC), a militia that operated in the oil and gold areas of Orientale. Bosco is currently the Chief of Staff of Laurent Nkunda’s CNDP army in North Kivu.

 

On July 14, 2008, the prosecutor of the ICC applied for an arrest warrant for Sudanese President, Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir, accused of crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur. Bashir is an Arab — another person of color — and the ICC has deeply politicized the Darfur conflict in keeping with the imperialist smokescreen of the "Save Darfur" movement.

 

There have been no ICC indictments against a single white man who could be proven to be equally culpable in war crimes, crimes against humanity, or genocide, though the list of possibilities — as indicated herein — is very, very long.

 

"Its name notwithstanding, the ICC is rapidly turning into a Western court to try African crimes against humanity," writes Mahmood Mamdani.

 

"It has targeted governments that are U.S. adversaries and ignored actions the United States doesn't oppose, like those of Uganda and Rwanda in eastern Congo, effectively conferring impunity on them." [79]

 

The writing is on the wall, and we can anticipate the eventual arrest of Ugandan military commanders, including Laurent Nkunda, James Kazini, James Kabarebe, Salim Saleh and Paul Kagame. Such arrests aren’t likely to involve legitimate judicial proceedings, and it won’t merely because these people deserve to be arrested, which they do, and they probably won’t be arrested before a few more million people are slaughtered in Central Africa.

 

The arrests will come because these are the notoriously visible people of color used to make invisible — quite literally black out — the white war criminals and covert operators wrecking havoc in Africa and elsewhere around the world. They are the embraceable black Africans, and the future fall guys, and Africa’s "leaders" should take note. And so should Barack Obama.

 

Even more critical is the need for the Western news consuming public to recognize the face of propaganda and the nature of "change" and what it means to people of color everywhere Africa. Thus it is critical to note the recent shift in media coverage that accompanies the imminent shift in the post-election balance of U.S. power. General Laurent Nkunda has been deeply involved in Congo for years and the Kagame military machine has been shipping weapons and officers directly to Congo; these Rwanda Defense Force (RDF) officers infiltrate the country and direct the "rebel" operations, and the CNDP has served as a lever of power used against the Kabila government.

 

Reported herein — and nowhere else — is the ongoing secret military involvement of Yoweri Museveni and the Ugandan crime networks. Only recently, as power shifts from the G.W. Bush power elite to the incoming Obama Administration — being packed with Clintonite friends and officials, and by Democratic Party financiers like diamond kingpin Maurice Tempelsman — has Nkunda or Rwanda been subject to any kind of "harsh criticism". The New York Times article of December 3, 2008, is the perfect example of the "news" media serving hidden agendas.

 

In "Rwanda Stirs Deadly Brew of Troubles in Congo," the New York Times peddles all the standard narrative about "genocide in Rwanda" in 1994. Suddenly, writes Jeffrey Gettleman, the NYT’s chief Congo propagandist of late, there is a "secret Rwandan brotherhood" and Rwandan government officials are involved in the bloodletting and plunder in Congo. [80]

 

Power factions allied with the Bush administration are exerting leverage, and mildly exposing the obvious links of the former Clinton administration to war and covert operations in Congo.

 

Suddenly it’s beneficial to name a few names — names like Modeste Makabuza Ngoga — names that have been known and named before. [81]

 

These New York Times articles are nothing more than expedience, tricks in a bag of tricks, as power jockeys for position, and massive private profit, as we approach the zero hour and the twilight of savior Barack Obama’s coming, bringing "change" to America, and the same old, new, humanitarian warfare to Africa.

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:o

 

http://www.southerntimesafrica.com/inside....1369&cat=10

Who is Laurent Nkunda?

One of them is Walter Kansteiner, a top level National Security Agency official in both the Clinton and Bush Administrations. Zimbabweans remember him for his relentless support for the regime change agenda in their country. Before joining the corridors of power in Washington, Kansteiner was a minerals expert specialising in coltan, one of the mineral byproducts of the warfare in DRC's Kivu province. Today, Kansteiner is on the Board of Directors of Moto Gold, now operating in the killing fields of the violent Ituri district near Lake Albert. A Canadian company Heritage Oil and Gas is also in the region looking for oil and gas.

 

The Congolese people in Kivu have no faith in Ban ki Moon's United Nations force MONUC, which they believe is pursuing a political agenda and is not serious about its "peace keeping" in eastern Congo.

That is why it has never dislodged Laurent Nkunda despite his military advances towards Goma, which are a violation of the territorial integrity of the DRC. They claim that Nkunda is a rich man who has bought both UN and government officials with the immense loot he has made from his insurgency. Nkunda allegedly earns at least US$100 000 a month in extortion and mineral theft which he uses to buy officials. They say he is being used by Western powers to leverage their position with Kabila in their quest to reverse the agreement signed with China on 17 September 2007 to invest billions of dollars in the DRC's infrastructure.

Nkunda, observers say, is the insurance policy of the US and its Western allies such as the German companies trying to hog access to the Congo's Luesha niobium mines and other minerals under Nkunda's control. Since most of Nkunda's money is funneled to him through Rwanda, many observers say that if Rwanda cut off its funding to Nkunda, his army would desert him and his grip on the gorilla sector of the Virunga would evaporate almost overnight.

 

Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney to President Bush on DR Congo

 

Cynthia McKinney

Member of Congress

United States

03.28.01

 

 

The Honorable George W. Bush

President

The United States of America

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW

Washington, D.C. 20500

 

Dear President Bush:

 

I am writing to express my great concern that public comments and policy statements in recent years by your new appointee for Assistant Secretary of State for Africa, Walter H.Kansteiner III, could be a harbinger of a nightmarish U.S. foreign policy for the resolution of the tragic war in the Democratic Republic of Congo. I hope that this is not the case and I respectfully request your immediate and most forceful assurances that these statements do not reflect your view on the resolution of the current crisis in Congo.

 

As you no doubt know Mr. President, the United Nations Security Council has found that the international crisis in the Great Lakes region has been brought about by the illegal invasion of eastern Congo by the armed forces of Rwanda and Uganda, who are the real powers behind various armed Congolese rebel groups. The United Nations has resolved that all parties to the conflict should cease fighting and that Rwanda and Uganda should unilaterally withdraw from the Congo.

 

Mr. Kansteiner's first statement regarding this crisis in Democratic Republic of Congo which causes me concern was a written view in an Eastern Zaire Issue Brief (10/15/96) for The Forum for International Policy. In this issue he posited an idea for the resolution of the war in Congo that he himself characterized as "radical." Mr. Kansteiner wrote:

 

"A more radical approach would be to divide territory between the two primary ethnic groups. Creating homogeneous ethnic lands would probably necessitate redrawing international boundaries and would require massive 'voluntary' relocation efforts, shifting Tutsis to a newly created Tutsi state and likewise for Hutus."

 

Mr. Kansteiner's second statement of concern to me was made on August 23, 1998 in a Pittsburgh Post Gazette article in which Mr. Kansteiner was quoted as saying that "the breakup of the Congo is more likely now than it has been in 20 or 30 years."

 

Not only are Mr. Kansteiner's ideas "radical," I find them shocking and even reprehensible. I cannot agree with him that the best and only prescription for peace in Congo should come at the expense of the territorial sovereignty of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The partitioning of Congo in the way prescribed by Mr. Kansteiner would amount to a reward to Rwanda, Uganda and their allies whose combined invasion has now cost the lives of two million Congolese men, women and children and the displacement of an estimated 500,000 civilians in eastern Congo. In my view Mr. Kansteiner, and indeed all persons of good conscience, should be demanding that at a minimum and as a prerequisite to any peace in Congo, the armed forces of Rwanda and Uganda completely withdraw from the territory of the Democratic Republic of Congo and that all persons responsible for the commission of grave crimes against civilians in eastern Congo be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

 

I never cease to be amazed by the fact that a man who kills another can be prosecuted for murder in a domestic court but a man who orders the killing of 200,000 or more men, women and children won't be prosecuted but instead would be invited for peace talks. Mr. Kansteiner's prescription for Congo only reinforces my perception that international diplomacy has very little regard for the violations of international law and widespread abuse of the world's civilian populations.

 

As I write this letter, I'm reminded of your father's steadfast and much celebrated defense of Kuwaiti sovereignty after the illegal invasion by Iraq. Surely, your Administration is not now ready to allow or perhaps even reward the invasion, occupation, and dismantling of Congo or indeed any other country on the African Continent.

 

Mr. President, the scale and nature of the crimes which have been and are still being committed in eastern Congo rival anything being committed in the world today and they warrant our nation's strongest condemnation and firm action. Human RightsWatch has consistently reported on the widespread torture and murder of civilians in eastern Congo. Incidents of women being raped and tortured in front of their children abound. Even reports of women being raped with branches and then being buried alive have been documented. Human Rights Watch even reported on a case of a Congolese woman being raped and then forced to stand in a pit full of water in which a dead infant was already floating from another woman who had miscarried earlier during her torture.

 

Just this week on March 22, 2001 the Rome based Catholic missionary news agency,MISNA, reported that Rwanda was now operating concentration camps in eastern Congo in which slave laborers brought from Rwandan prisons are being forced to work in underground mines to gather Congo's precious resources for sale to U.S. and other foreign corporations. This is clearly a grave violation of international law and is evidence of the fact that Rwanda and its conspirators may be about to reduce African human rights to a whole new low by following Nazi and Japanese precedents of enslaving civilian populations to produce wealth.

 

As you well know, far too many foreign business interests behave like screwworms eating out the healthy flesh of Africa's body politic. Unfortunately, they sate themselves on Africa's minerals while leaving only rot behind.

 

I have a long-standing and deep commitment to human rights worldwide and Africa in particular. This commitment transcends partisan politics. I have publicly stated my hope for the success of your Administration and the improvements in Africa policy thatI hoped you would implement. I have met with leaders on your foreign policy team and I have great respect for them.

 

The United States has much to offer the world. Our values are a beacon around this planet. Our foreign policy should be consistently and fairly applied and make the American people proud. I hope and pray that your Africa policy will uphold international law and put an end to Congo's pain.

 

I respectfully request a briefing on your Africa policy in general and your Great Lakes policy in particular.

 

I await your thoughtful response to my concerns.

 

Sincerely,

 

Cynthia McKinney

Member of Congress

 

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Anvil Halts Copper Output at Mine in Congo After Prices Fall

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=206...mp;refer=africa

By Madelene Pearson

Dec. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Anvil Mining Ltd., an Australian producer of copper in the Democratic Republic of Congo, said it will halt output at its Dikulushi mine until the price of the metal rebounds.

The company will postpone underground development work and begin a care and maintenance program at the mine in the Katanga Province, Anvil said today in a statement to the Australian stock exchange.

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Congo Copper-Mining Region May Lose 300,000 Jobs, Minister Says

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=206...mp;refer=africa

By Franz Wild

 

Dec. 8 (Bloomberg) -- As many as 300,000 people will lose their jobs this year in Democratic Republic of Congo’s southern Katanga province as the global economic slump depresses metal prices, said Barthelemy Mumba Gama, the region’s mines minister. ....

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AFRICOM China and Congo resource wars

By F. William Engdahl

Online Journal Contributing Writer

Dec 9, 2008, 00:26

http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_4106.shtml

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This is not an ethnic conflict

http://mondediplo.com/2008/12/09congo

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Congo’s government will next week announce the final results of a review of 61 mining contracts, aimed at boosting state revenue in the sector, Kasongo said.

 

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=206...mp;refer=africa

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Who could make a first offer for MGL?

 

http://www.miningweekly.com/article.php?a_id=148303

 

Randgold has $264-million in cash and hopes to use the difficulties that juniors are facing to widen its exploration efforts, particularly in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic, Tanzania and Cameroon.

 

Randgold hunts for African gold assets

Mon Nov 17, 2008

http://www.reuters.com/article/innovationN...E4AG3OG20081117

 

Pointing out on a map a band of gold mineralization that passes through parts of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Tanzania, Central African Republic and Cameroon, Bristow says Randgold is moving a team into offices in Mwanza on the Tanzanian shore of Lake Victoria, which will serve as a vantage point for central Africa.

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[Kenneth Holden]

Congo’s government will next week announce the final results of a review of 61 mining contracts, aimed at boosting state revenue in the sector, Kasongo said.

 

“The government will pronounce itself definitively,” he said. “The executive will have spoken.”

 

Excerpt

 

"Put the Chinese in the bush," Victor Kasongo tells me, "and they survive with a bowl of rice. Europeans cost us too much. They need a satellite dish to watch rugby, casinos for the weekend. The Chinese just work, like soldiers."

 

I am sitting with Kasongo, Congo's most powerful mining official, in his office, which overlooks a squalid, windowless government building. An intensely focused technocrat in a square-cut suit, Kasongo was fresh from a trip to Beijing; scattered on the desk in front of him lay a dozen Chinese business cards. "Americans are focused on oil, but they're not focused on Africa for business," he tells me. "Americans are dormant economically."

 

I had arrived at a turning point for Congo. Kasongo and his colleagues were in the throes of a decision that will define the country's future for decades to come. The Chinese had recently offered up a then-secret multibillion-dollar mining-and-infrastructure package; Joseph Kabila's government was trying to decide whether to accept. If it did, the deal would mark China's largest single commitment in Africa up to that point, and in essence remake the economic map of the continent. If it didn't, Congo had the option of an alternative route devised by a Canadian mining lawyer who was installed by the World Bank in 2005 to rehabilitate the country's now-bankrupt mining monopoly. That plan en-visioned a debt-clearing scheme leading to an eventual IPO on a Western stock exchange; it presumed major steps forward on transparency, as well as a two-year time frame to pull off. The Congo didn't have that kind of time.

 

By all accounts, Kasongo is a sharp and honest reformer. He alchemized a middle-class Congolese background into an engineering degree in Brussels and a job with Ernst & Young in South Africa before returning to rise in Congo's government. He knows how coveted Congo's minerals have become. "Rio Tinto is knocking on our door," he boasts to me, referring to the world's second-biggest mining giant. "But China sees those big companies -- Tinto, Billiton, all of them formed in colonial times -- and asks, 'Why make Tinto bigger?' "

 

"If China wants to dominate the world, it's not our business to stop them," Kasongo continues. "Who are we to close the door to them when we don't have water or electric-ity? If China doesn't come [to Congo], we're in big shit."

 

If Kasongo ever felt tenderness for China's competitors from the West, it has cooled considerably. On the day I arrived in Kinshasa, I watched a team of exhausted Congolese investigators holed up inside the mining industry until late at night. Stacks of yellowing contracts were piled high on the floor, representing 60 joint ventures the country had signed since 1997, mainly with operators from America, Australia, Britain, Canada, and Israel. With occasional help from Ernst & Young, Rothschild of Paris, and the U.S.-based (Jimmy) Carter Center, Kasongo's deputies were reviewing every detail, a process that has now taken a year. "Every contract is significantly flawed," a British adviser to Kasongo tells me. "Many of the deals were corrupt, and patently so."

 

Kasongo explains that only 5 of the 60 deals were producing minerals, while 6 projects were still in the feasibility-study stage. "And 49 are sitting there waiting for ... what, I don't know," he fumes. "Expertise? Financing? Investors? A better time to market?" Congo urgently needs those mines to come on line, he says, in order to keep the economy moving, however slowly. But 22 of these "partners" aren't actively mining at all -- they're riding the spike in raw-material prices, "making a fortune with rising share prices" on stock exchanges from Vancouver to New York to London to Johannesburg. "They are mining the stock exchanges, not the mines!" Kasongo exclaims. "We can demonstrate that $17 billion of [stock-market value] is built on a lie to the world. People make their bucks and forget about us. We need water and electricity. The Chinese say, 'We need minerals for growing, and you need infrastructure.' So we have the same interests."

 

Kasongo despises the old-style patronage deals in Congo, but he's also a realist; and everyone knows there are protectors inside the government. "His political position is deli-cate," says one insider. "Half the mining world wants him dead. There is a limit to how far Victor can talk about corruption on his side. But he can change the deals."

 

After I returned to the United States, Congo announced that it had accepted China's $6 billion offer (later upped to $9 billion), creating not only an enormous new source of cash and support inside the country but also a serious challenge to the Western companies that had operated there with little or no competition. Since February, Kasongo has been trying to renegotiate the most egregious of the old contracts in the ministry's portfolio. He's besieged by the old guard on one side, which still has plenty at stake in the existing deals, and the World Bank on the other, which is expressing concern that the China deal is corruption-prone and may saddle Congo with still more unsustainable debt on top of the $14 billion already owed to the West. As Kasongo explains, "We asked the World Bank for roads," but it wanted to attach too many conditions. "Obviously, we want human rights," he goes on, "and we have a mechanism in place, thanks to the Europeans. But Asians listen more to our concerns without being patronizing."

 

The Chinese, in other words, are long on cash and short on rules. One can't help wonder-ing if Westerners ever really had a chance to compete in Congo. After all, what Western nation (or company) could take on such gargantuan risk -- especially in a country the World Bank ranks as the very worst place in the world to do business? As China's ambas-sador to Congo, Wu Zexian, has said, China won the contract because its no- strings offer was all upside for the Congolese government: "Unbeatable, one could say. Unbeatable by far. There won't be any competitors."

 

The 37-year-old Kabila, the first democratically elected leader since Congo's independence from Belgium in 1960, has staked his future -- political and possibly physical -- on the Chinese deal panning out. China's next trick will be to find a way to rip the treasure from the ground and move it out of a country the size of Western Europe but with scarcely 1,200 miles of decent roads, a decaying or nonexistent infrastructure, and an annual government budget of only $3.6 billion. But just as China has a coherent strategy for locking up raw materials, it now seems to be revealing a master plan for taking those materials back home. Of the $9 billion, one-third will be pumped into the Congo's war-ravaged mines. The other $6 billion will take the form of a soft loan (backed by some of the country's best mineral deposits) for new infrastructure, to be built by Chinese con-struction companies, primarily with Chinese labor. Indeed, when you study the outlines of the Sino-Congolese deal -- it features roughly 4,500 miles of rail lines and roads -- China's decision to launch its first "special economic zone," including a giant smelter, in adjacent Zambia makes perfect sense. The zone will serve as the hub of an industrial-distribution system linking Congo by rail and highway to Chinese-built networks in Zambia and Angola, and ultimately to ports on either coast.

 

China seems to be developing an extraction master plan for the sub-Sahara, linking Congo to Zambia and Angola.

 

Some critics fear the deal amounts to Congo's de facto colonization. But the package in-cludes a mind-spinning 176 hospitals and health centres, a modernized sewer system for Kinshasa, two large universities, a new port, and 5,000 units of public housing. That kind of colonization might be worth thinking about. "What keeps me awake?" Kasongo asks. "If we fail to deliver water and electricity because we mismanaged our strong points [i.e., minerals]. Every day counts. We don't have means to deliver anything, but we can ex-change what we have. If the Chinese are the solution, why not?"

 

In reality, China is part of the problem. Congo's official statistics show that its No. 1 ex-port partner today is Belgium, followed by the United States. In truth, it's probably China -- thanks to that still-thriving informal economy begun under Mobutu. Kasongo estimates there are 1.5 million artisanal "diggers" in Congo -- black-market miners, many of them indentured to Chinese middlemen and financiers. These diggers currently produce about 75% of the minerals exported from Congo, he says, mostly by clawing for nuggets with pickaxes or their bare hands. The concentrate is typically loaded onto 30-ton flatbed trucks and smuggled to China on cargo ships via South African or Tanzanian ports. "Most of the Chinese are here illegally," adds Gaby Matshafu, one of Kasongo's deputies.

 

The government is trying to crack down on the smuggling, but policing Congo's gigantic border -- like patrolling Mozambique's coast -- is simply too big a challenge today. "We found 300 trucks lying in a queue along the border, with copper and cobalt to be proc-essed in Zambia," fumes Kasongo. "Twenty-six smelters were waiting for it in China. We stopped it."

 

Kasongo seems destined to make more enemies still. One of the most controversial con-tracts he is examining, for example, involves a public Canadian-British entity called Ka-tanga Mining. Congo's central bank governor sits on its board of directors and, until re-cently, so did the minister of portfolio. "There is no way we can run this country if people keep having conflicts of interest," says Kitenge, the local businessman and publisher. "Corruption at the top of the government is far beyond 70%. The economy is run by a mafia. And the poor are getting poorer every single day."

 

Like most China-Africa agreements, the fine print on the Congo megadeal has yet to be made public. But it's hard to believe that the standard pattern of corruption won't assert itself. Certainly the experience in the Congo of Frank He and Michael Huang isn't very encouraging. Before setting up their copper concession in Zambia, the Chinese brothers initially explored doing business in Congo. They left in the end, they told me, after finding the environment too chaotic and dangerous. At one point, according to Huang, Congolese immigration officials demanded a large bribe. Alarmed, the brothers called the Chinese embassy for assistance. This is the advice they received: "You came with money. Pay them."

 

http://www.abibitumikasa.com/forums/oppres...ment-kongo.html

 

[vssmnn]

El Niño Completes Acquisition in the DRC

 

December 16, 2008, Vancouver, BC -- El Niño Ventures Inc. ("El Nino" or the "Company") (TSX.V: ELN; Frankfurt: E7Q) is pleased to announce that it has signed an Acquisition of an Interest Agreement with Phoenix Mining Corporation ("PMC") a Congolese mining company, pursuant to the Letter of Intent that was announced July 21, 2008, PMC and ELN wish to incorporate the terms and conditions of the detailed agreement that reflects the terms of the Letter Agreement as follows:

 

Under the terms of the Acquisition of an Interest Agreement the Company can earn a 70 percent interest in PR 9316 in the DRC by making; a payment of $200,000 USD which payment will be payable upon regulatory approval of this Agreement; 100,000 shares of the share capital of the Company shall be issued to PMC on each of the three anniversary dates of this Agreement for a total of 300,000 shares; the Company will be the program operator and will be responsible for all exploration and development costs on this property; the Company shall pay $2,000,000 to PMC upon the following schedule: (i) $250,000 within 15 days of the first anniversary of the Effective Date, (ii) $300,000 within 15 days of the second anniversary of the Effective Date; (iii) $350,000 within 15 days of the third anniversary of the Effective Date, and (iv) the balance of $1,100,000 within 15 days of the fourth anniversary of the Effective Date.

 

Jean Luc Roy, President & CEO of El Nino Ventures Inc. states: "We are very happy to reach a conclusion on this acquisition with PMC. This Research Permit 9316 is located between two world class deposits, the Ruashi deposit and the Luishi deposit and the Company is already planning its initial exploration program which will be carried out over the next year.

 

I would also like to update our shareholders on the pending results on our PR 5214 which were expected this month. We should have all results in a couple of weeks and at that point the Company will release its results on the Kasala Project. "