Good news for Glencore? Congo delays ban on certain mineral exports until 2017
By Tom Wilson
(Bloomberg) — The Democratic Republic of Congo postponed a ban on exports of concentrated copper and cobalt for another year because the country doesn't have enough electricity to process the minerals, the Chamber of Mines said.
The ban, intended to force companies to add value to their minerals before shipment, was supposed to go into effect in January 2014 and has already been postponed twice.
"The chamber asked for another extension of the ban because the energy problem has not been resolved, and we received a positive answer," said Simon Tuma-Waku, head of the mining division at the Federation des Entreprises du Congo.
Read also: Glencore invests in Congo hydropower as solution to blackouts
Congo, the world's largest cobalt producer, is suffering from power shortages that are hindering attempts to increase minerals production. Supply shortfalls are reducing copper output by as much as 50,000 metric tons a year and production is estimated to have declined to 982,044 tons in 2015 from 1.04 million tons a year earlier, the FEC said in November.
Glencore Plc, one of Congo's largest minerals producers, has said it was experiencing as many as three outages a day at its Katanga Mining Ltd. unit before in September suspending output for 18 months to invest in new processing facilities.