CoTec, Copper Intelligence sign agreement for DRC tailings
CoTec and Copper Intelligence have signed a definitive joint venture agreement covering the processing of historical copper tailings in the Democratic Republic of Congo, with two third-party investment vehicles associated with CoTec's CEO Julian Treger and chairman Lucio Genovese also involved. The joint venture will seek opportunities in the Central African Copperbelt, where large volumes of copper tailings have accumulated since the 1950s under the state-owned company Gécamines, and the new company will be incorporated in the British Virgin Islands. It plans to deploy CoTec's technologies on the tailings and redundant copper sites, and to secure funding from the US International Development Finance Corporation and other financiers once the portfolio reaches sufficient scale.
Why it matters: The agreement adds a processing-based route into copper and cobalt supply from the Central African Copperbelt, a theme of critical-minerals supply chains.