G?(C)camines expects to complete an audit of its joint-venture partners active in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) by mid-March, with the report expected to back up the state-run mining firm's drive to renegotiate contracts, chairman Albert Yuma said.
Yuma told Metal Bulletin in an interview that the audit, conducted by E&Y over the past three years, would probably result in the renegotiation of mine licenses and their potential revocation if no new agreement were made. "We pushed the auditors to accelerate the work, and now we already have full reserves and details for four JVs - the others are on the way. By mid-March we'll have the results of 17 JVs and we'll be able to demonstrate why we need to renegotiate all those JVs," he said. The acceleration of the audit was done to take advantage of rising copper and cobalt prices, which have strengthened significantly since the process started. Major companies active in the DRC include Glencore, Randgold Resources, Ivanhoe Mines and CMOC. According to Yuma, G?(C)camines undertook the audit because it was dissatisfied with the profitability of the JVs and wanted to understand why they...