According to Mining Weekly, Dominique Sambwa, chairman of SRK Consulting Congo, said in a video interview thatInfrastructure construction in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is steadily advancing, and a number of cooperation agreements have been successively implemented, indicating that it will enter a substantive development stage in the next five years. Sambua specifically mentioned that the government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo had previously negotiated a large-scale infrastructure investment plan worth up to 7 billion US dollars, covering key areas such as power stations, roads, railways, hospitals and schools, with the goal of significantly improving the current state of the country's infrastructure by 2030. He said, "Currently, the Democratic Republic of the Congo is committed to diversifying mining cooperation, but it must be admitted that the most landmark infrastructure achievements to date are still closely related to China - these results are often directly linked to the mining rights obtained by Chinese consortia in the local area." Data shows that the copper output of the Democratic Republic of the Congo has increased significantly from 70,000 tons in 2000 to over 2 million tons in 2024, with an average annual growth rate of nearly 100,000 tons. Meanwhile, the country also stably supplies about 70% of the world's cobalt resources and holds an important position in the fields of electric vehicle batteries, aviation superalloys and pigments. Sambuwa pointed out that the Democratic Republic of the Congo wants to achieve the grand goal of local processing and increasing the added value of industries,Further expansion of energy infrastructure is still needed. "We not only need to increase the power generation capacity, but also build a supporting system that can support on-site processing of minerals." " When it comes to the role of Chinese enterprises in the mining industry of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, he frankly stated: "Chinese enterprises have been deeply involved in the cobalt and copper industry chain for nearly two decades, especially in the Katanga copper Belt region, where their operational performance has been outstanding." In recent years, they have also begun to venture into lithium mining. For instance, the mineralized resources in the Manono region have been confirmed, and the related enterprises plan to start lithium mining production next year. In addition, some Chinese enterprises have also made investments in the gold mining sector, although most of them are concentrated in the small-scale manual mining (ASM) stage. Although these projects are not large in scale, they have indeed driven employment and contributed to the country's tax revenue. He said, "c" However, he also admitted that the unbalanced agreements related to some Chinese-funded projects still cause controversy, such as issues of environmental pollution, deforestation and community relocation. "Without protective measures, the acidic leaching process in mining may indeed pose risks of water and soil pollution." " Sambois added, "Compared with 20 years ago, the current operational standards have made significant progress."Chinese enterprises have indeed invested more resources in complying with environmental protection regulations, but the environment and governance remain unsolved challenges. Some of the problems stem from the insufficiency of regulatory talents and professional capabilities. When discussing the topic of "inclusive growth", Sambois pointed out: "Today's investment must benefit the people, especially infrastructure projects, which can create long-term benefits for a wider range of people." However, the current difficulty lies in the weak follow-up management, which leads to the resources not being fully accessible to everyone. He said that Zambia's current practices in mining transparency are worth learning from by the Democratic Republic of the Congo - for instance, the "G-Factor" mechanism has achieved the visualization and online public disclosure of shared mining revenue data, enhancing the public's supervision over resource allocation. We are also striving to move in this direction. Sambuwa said, "Although we face more challenges than Zambia, the prospects for collaboration between the two countries in the regional battery industry chain are worth looking forward to." It is learned that Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Zambia are jointly promoting the "Cross-border Battery Value Chain" plan, planning to establish special economic zones to focus on developing the battery precursor and complete battery manufacturing industries, aiming to drive the upgrading of the two countries towards high value-added metal processing and new energy industries.

- Excerpted from the banks of the Congo River