Democratic Republic of Congo\u2019s President Felix \u200cTshisekedi has ordered a comprehensive audit of mining export revenues and state assets, warning that weak controls were preventing the country from fully benefiting from record copper and cobalt exports, according to cabinet minutes seen by \u200bReuters.<\/p>\n
Congo is a top supplier of cobalt and copper, and also holds vast reserves \u200bof lithium, gold and coltan, making it a battleground in the\u00a0global competition\u00a0to \u2060secure critical mineral supply chains.<\/p>\n
The Congolese government has signed separate minerals deals with the\u00a0United States\u00a0and\u00a0China\u00a0\u200bas the two superpowers seek to build critical mineral stockpiles to aid the clean-energy and battery \u200belectric vehicle transition.<\/p>\n
The central African nation exported about 3.4 million metric tons of copper in 2025, up from 3.1 million tons in 2024, while cobalt exports reached around 220,000 tons, according to figures cited at a \u200bcabinet meeting chaired by Tshisekedi on Friday but seen this week.<\/p>\n
Congo shipped about 955,000 metric tons \u200bof copper between January and March 2026, down from about 1.09 million tons a year earlier, Reuters reported this \u200cmonth.<\/p>\n
Despite \u2060surging output, Tshisekedi said the state was losing revenues due to poor oversight, opaque joint ventures involving state mining assets, non\u2011repatriation of earnings and capital flight through fraudulent imports.<\/p>\n
The president ordered an exhaustive audit within 30 days to identify unpaid revenues and governance failures in mining partnerships, according \u200bto the minutes. It \u200bdid not specify the \u2060mechanisms and scope of the audits.<\/p>\n
He also instructed authorities to fully interconnect customs, port agencies, the central bank and commercial banks, saying no mineral \u200bexport or import should escape a single traceable chain. Initial findings \u200bare due by \u2060June 15, the minutes said.<\/p>\n
Congo, among the\u00a0world’s poorest, has recently launched mining reforms to tighten state control over the mineral sector to help boost revenues. A state audit found that major mining companies\u00a0underreported \u2060about $16.8 \u200bbillion\u00a0between 2018 and 2023, potentially reducing funds for the \u200bgovernment and local communities.<\/p>\n
Tshisekedi further ordered a crackdown on illegal and often violent mining operations. Measures include seizure of illegal \u200bequipment and criminal prosecution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Democratic Republic of Congo\u2019s President Felix \u200cTshisekedi has ordered a comprehensive audit of mining export revenues and state assets, warning that weak controls were preventing the country from fully benefiting from record copper and cobalt exports, according to cabinet minutes seen by \u200bReuters. Congo is a top supplier of cobalt and copper, and also holds […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13496,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":1,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"1"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","source_name":"Reuters","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,2362,3028],"tags":[4508,2388,3016,303],"class_list":["post-20642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-east-africa","category-featured","category-mining","tag-cobalt","tag-copper","tag-democratic-republic-of-congo-drc","tag-felix-tshisekedi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20642"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20642\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20643,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20642\/revisions\/20643"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}