CMOC, formerly known as China Molybdenum, has criticised excessive fees from the Democratic Republic of Congo's (DRC) state-owned mining company Gecamines, which is demanding compensation for higher copper and cobalt reserves at its Tenke Fungurume mine.
Kinshasa alleged that CMOC undervalued the mine's reserves to reduce the royalties it pays to Gecamines, which owns 20% of Tenke Fungurume Mining (TFM).
"If we have to evaluate all the lost revenue, we are beyond $ 7 billion," Gecamines deputy director general Leon Mwine Kabiena was quoted as saying by Reuters.
"We told … CMOC that if they didn't have enough money to pay the full amount, they should look at how to compensate with the shares and deposits."
Gecamines didn't explain how they came up with the $7 billion figure.
The Chinese miner denied any wrongdoing.
"We trust and accept fair evaluation by independent international third-party if there were any opposing views to the additional reserves, but we would not accept any groundless wild overcharges as manipulated by few from GCM Read full story," said CMOC spokesman Vincent Zhou.
Under a 2010 agreement between Gecamines and TFM, TFM is required to pay Gecamines an additional $1.2 million in royalties for every 100,000 tonnes of copper reserves in excess of a baseline of 2.5 million tonnes.
Gecamines is allegedly asking CMOC for between $2 billion and $2.5 billion in cash and a larger stake of between 49% and 51% in TFM.
Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau, Rough&Polished
