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Kinshasa, February 21st, 2024
5 million US dollars: This is the amount awarded to Buenassa by the DRC Government through the Fonds de Promotion de l'Industrie (FPI) to support its LME-grade copper cathode and cobalt sulphate hydrometallurgical plant (refinery) project for which the phase I will produce 30,000.00 KT of copper cathodes and 5000 KT of Cobalt Sulphate.
Buenassa set itself an ambitious goal: to develop the first Congolese owned refinery in the DRC to produce LME grade copper cathodes and battery grade cobalt sulphate in support of the Government's initiative to progressively develop an integrated value chain around battery and electric vehicles manufacturing, starting with battery precursors.
Since then, Buenassa has secured the support of the DRC Government, as well as that of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), which has offered to facilitate the involvement of AfreximBank, AFDB, AFC and BADEA, among the leading pan-African financial institutions already supporting the battery and electric cars initiative, for which the DRC, Zambia and the US signed a MoU last December 13, 2022.
The subvention for which Buenassa has signed a subvention agreement is a first tranche to be followed by others, possibly from the FPI and the Fonds Minier pour les Générations Futures (Mining Fund for Future Generations - FOMIN) at the level of the DRC government, to be complemented by expected regional and international financing.
To support the development of low-carbon mobility, and beyond a responsible consumption of energy for our planet, Buenassa intends to deploy by phase the largest cobalt refining complex in the world.
Today, the production of LME-grade copper cathodes and battery grade cobalt sulphate is mainly located abroad and represents a sovereignty issue for the DRC, which cannot retain any meaningful value locally, with all the negative socio-economic impacts this entails, at a time when the country needs access to responsible industrialisation anchored in a regional green economy development framework.
Eddy Kioni, Founder and CEO of Buenassa said:
“Through its project, Buenassa will help the DRC, soon to become the world's second largest producer of copper and already by far the world's largest producer of cobalt, to reshape relevant global supply chains in an effort to offer a balanced access to some of the most important critical metals needed for military and commercial application, among other, to manufacture electric batteries, catalysts for chemical and petroleum industries, many high-tech products and superalloys for jet engines. Those minerals will contribute to making net-zero a reality in the context of a just and equitable Energy Transition. On the top of that, Buenassa intends to deploy a blockchain based traceability solution and a metals storage facility to assist the DRC Government to control better movement of metals and international market prices ”
In order to achieve its goal, Buenassa has secured a financial partnership with Delphos International, a US based Financial advisory firm specialised in emerging markets, to raise the investment capital of 350 millions USD required.
Buenassa has also selected the following mining engineering advisory firms to cover the technical aspects of the project preparation. The UK based firm Bara Consulting and the South Africa based firm MET63 as a joint team to carry out the technical studies, starting with a scoping study. Additionally, DMT Kai Batla, the South African subsidiary of the German international engineering company DMT Group, has been selected to carry out specific geo-metallurgical studies for future Artisanal and small scale mining feedstock , and later to assist in the implementation of a certification scheme, to allow that artisanal and small-scale (ASM) mining production to be accepted alongside the large-scale mining production that will be primarily feedstock.
The conduct of the technical studies are scheduled to commence by the end of March 2024.
About Buenassa
Buenassa is a company based in the Democratic Republic of Congo whose vision is to cover the entire mineral supply chain, from extraction to export, by promoting responsible practices embedded in the climate action awareness and for the benefit of local communities, supporting inclusive economic development of youth and gender.
Buenassa develops projects aiming at implementing local minerals beneficiation programs for the development of the congolese national mining industry.
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