The presidents of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Félix Tshisekedi, of Angola, Lourenço of Angola, and of Zambia, Hakainde Hichilema, chaired, this Tuesday, July 04, a ceremony to sign an agreement aimed at facilitating the transport of their minerals to external markets, informs a press release from the Congolese presidency.
The three leaders agreed to make optimal use of the Angolan Lobito railway corridor, located near the mining regions of Greater Katanga in the DRC and the Copperbelt in Zambia, explains the same source.
The press release also states that the three countries have granted the operation of this border corridor to the Lobito Atlantic Railway consortium, winner of the international call for tenders, which is formed by the companies Trafigura (from Switzerland), Vecturis (from Belgium) and Mota-Engil (from Portugal).
This consortium plans to increase the daily frequency to 49 trains over a period of 30 years, and to guarantee 1,600 direct jobs. It will be responsible for transporting large loads, such as minerals from the DRC and Zambia, as well as maintaining infrastructure (workshops, railway).
« The full operationalization of this corridor will ultimately open up access to the mines of Zambia and the DRC, as well as access to and circulation of inputs that are essential both for the mining and agricultural industries, and in terms of extraction than production », said President Félix Tshisekedi, quoted in the text.
And to continue, « faced with the community of destinies that characterize its peoples and the challenges of the future, Africa must choose either to integrate in order to progress and prosper together in a perspective of co-development, or to remain a simple aggregate to stagnate and inevitably wither away”.
The Lobito corridor, strategic in the supply chain of the mining industry, offers the shortest route for exports, connecting the main mining regions of the DRC and Zambia to the Atlantic Ocean, thus reducing the time of transport from a few weeks to a few days, as well as the logistics costs, we read in the press release.
In the DRC, this corridor connects the mining provinces of Tanganyika, Haut-Lomami, Lualaba and Haut-Katanga. Copper concentrates are transported from these provinces to Zambia to be smelted there before export, and the corridor offers an efficient route for access to external markets, also informs the text which specifies that Zambia and the DRC depended until there strongly road transport for the export of precious metals.
By OMA Newsletter N° 1236 of 04/07/2023
Article published under the direction of Dr. Najib Kettani
The OMA, NGO with an Intercontinental vocation
For the development of cultural exchanges
Valuing human potential
The promotion and consolidation of Africa’s development, and
Inter-African integration
