Africa-Press – Angola. Ten thousand tons of copper concentrate, explored by the Canadian company “Ivanhoe Mines”, will be transported in the last quarter of 2023, through the Lobito Corridor (Benguela), which will reduce travel time on the rail link between the countries from Southern Africa.
To this end, Ivanhoe Mines, which operates the Kamoa-Kakula copper mines, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), signed a memorandum of understanding with the Lobito Atlantic Railway (LAR) consortium, which manages the railway line of the Lobito Corridor, to transport this ore.
The signing of the memorandum, announced last Wednesday by the co-chairman of the Canadian mining company, Robert Friedland, without specifying the date and place of initialing, is the first commercial agreement signed by the LAR consortium, according to a press release sent this Thursday -Friday.
According to that document, the transport of copper via the Lobito Corridor railway line, which connects the DRC and the Port of Lobito, over a distance of 1,739 kilometres, is a faster alternative that will shorten travel days significantly. significant.
For example, a round trip from Kamoa-Kakula to Durban (South Africa) takes 50 days, which will be reduced to just 20, using the Lobito Corridor.
According to the note, Ivanhoe Mines currently sends its ore by road to the ports of Durban, Walvis Bay (Namibia), Beira (Mozambique) and Dar es Salam (Tanzania).
Ivanhoe Mines is a Canadian mining company focused on copper discovery and the reconstruction and modernization of the historic Kipushi zinc, germanium and silver mine in the DRC, as well as rhodium gold exploration in South Africa.
Meanwhile, the Lobito Corridor concession was handed over to the Lobito Atlantic Railway (LAR) consortium and formalized on July 4, 2023, in a ceremony that was attended by the Presidents of Angola, DRC and Zambia.
Composed of the companies Trafigura (49.5%), Mota-Engil (49.5%) and Vecturis SA (1%), LAR won the international tender on November 4, 2022, to ensure the management of the Lobito Corridor for 30 years.
In this sense, Lobito Atlantic Railway is responsible for transporting heavy loads and maintaining the infrastructure of the Benguela Railway (CFB).
Under the concession contract, the consortium assumed the commitment to invest 455 million euros in Angola and another 100 million in the DRC, to improve the infrastructures of the Lobito Corridor in terms of capacity and security, as well as to buy 35 locomotives and 1,500 carriages.
The Lobito Railway Corridor extends, in Angola, for almost 1,300 kilometres, passing through the provinces of Benguela, Huambo, Bié and Moxico. In addition, the infrastructure continues in the Democratic Republic of Congo to Kolwezi, in Zambia, over a distance of 400 kilometres.
The Corridor is also connected to the extensive rail network managed by the National Railway Society of Congo (SNCC).
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