The Democratic Republic of Congo will subject major mining companies \u200cto annual audits of subcontracting practices and compliance with local-content requirements from 2027, as authorities step up efforts to increase business for Congolese-owned firms, the head of the country’s subcontracting regulator told Reuters.<\/p>\n
The world’s largest cobalt \u200bproducer and Africa’s top copper producer has tightened oversight of its mining sector as \u200bit seeks to channel more contracts and procurement spending to local companies.<\/p>\n
A \u2060new local-content law is due to take effect on January 1, 2027. Authorities are drafting \u200bsector-specific rules for mining and other industries that will include sanctions and mandatory three-year compliance \u200bplans, Beleshayi Kasanda Ted, director general of the Authority for the Regulation of Subcontracting in the Private Sector (ARSP), told Reuters last week.<\/p>\n
Major operators in Congo include Ivanhoe Mines, Glencore, Eurasian Resources Group and China’s CMOC \u200band Zijin.<\/p>\n
REGULATOR EXPANDS INSPECTION CAPACITY<\/strong><\/p>\n ARSP this month ordered Glencore, Ivanhoe’s Kipushi zinc mine and Chinese-controlled \u200bcopper miner Sicomines to end non-compliant subcontracting arrangements, submit corrective plans and expand opportunities for Congolese-owned suppliers.<\/p>\n An Ivanhoe \u200cspokesperson \u2060said the company was in regular contact with ARSP and considered its Kipushi mine compliant with applicable subcontracting rules.<\/p>\n Glencore declined to comment. Sicomines did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n Beleshayi said ARSP was recruiting a new group of inspectors and reviewing previously unresolved company \u200binspections as part of \u200ba broader compliance drive.<\/p>\n Robert \u2060Malumba Kalombo, head of the Federation of Enterprises of Congo, the country’s largest private-sector business association, warned implementation risked becoming too focused on \u200binspections and penalties rather than helping build competitive Congolese companies.<\/p>\n Jean-Claud Mputu, \u200bspokesperson for \u2060nonprofit group Congo Is Not for Sale, called for greater transparency around enforcement actions and disclosure of subcontractors’ beneficial owners.<\/p>\n He warned stricter local-content requirements could encourage politically connected firms to capture contracts \u2060without stronger \u200bsafeguards.<\/p>\n Of the $3.7 billion in subcontracting contracts declared by 167 \u200bmajor companies in 2025, $3.1 billion, or 83%, went to majority Congolese-owned companies, including $2.9 billion in the mining sector alone, \u200bBeleshayi said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Democratic Republic of Congo will subject major mining companies \u200cto annual audits of subcontracting practices and compliance with local-content requirements from 2027, as authorities step up efforts to increase business for Congolese-owned firms, the head of the country’s subcontracting regulator told Reuters. The world’s largest cobalt \u200bproducer and Africa’s top copper producer has tightened […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":11568,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":6,"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":[28,29,2362,3028],"tags":[72],"class_list":["post-22163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-central-africa","category-east-africa","category-featured","category-mining","tag-democratic-republic-of-congo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22163","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\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22163"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22163\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22165,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22163\/revisions\/22165"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}