ALBERT Yuma, president of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC’s) Gecamines, said claims the government-owned base metals company had failed to account for monies paid to it by foreign mining firms was an attempt to destabilise the country.
In a report on November 28 seen by Bloomberg News, Yuma also pledged to renegotiate existing contracts with the likes of Glencore and China Molybdenum.
“The sole objective” behind the allegations of mismanagement at Gecamines “… is the destabilisation of the Democratic Republic of Congo to serve unhindered, in the name of pseudo-democratic ideals, foreign demand” for the country’s mineral riches, Bloomberg News quoted Yuma to have said in the report.
The DRC is Africa’s biggest copper producer and the world’s largest source of cobalt. The Carter Center said last November that almost $750m of royalties, signing bonuses and asset-sale proceeds due to Gecamines from deals with joint venture partners between 2011 and 2014 couldn’t be reliably tracked to the company’s accounts.
Gecamines, which is a junior shareholder in most of Congo’s mining projects, denied any money is missing. It paid $372m to the national Treasury between 2009 and 2014, significantly higher than figures put forward by the Carter Center and Global Witness, according to the report.
