DRC replaces Gécamines chairman and chief executive

The Democratic Republic of Congo's president has replaced the chairman and chief executive of state-owned mining company Gécamines, which holds stakes in copper and cobalt mines operated by some of the world's largest miners.

President Felix Tshisekedi named Deogratias Ngele Masudi as chairman and Baraka Kabemba as chief executive, according to a presidential decree read on state television. They replaced Guy Robert Lukama and Placide Nkala Basadilua respectively. Masudi is a former justice minister and former secretary-general of Gécamines, while Kabemba is a mining-sector partner at consultancy EY.

A pivotal moment for the state miner

Gécamines holds minority stakes in copper-cobalt operations controlled by major companies including CMOC Group, Glencore and Eurasian Resources Group, and has been expanding its role trading a portion of the metals produced through its joint ventures. The leadership change came at a moment when Gécamines' commercial ambitions were accelerating rapidly, following the marketing-rights agreement it had just struck with Glencore at Kamoto Copper Company and its emerging role directing Tenke Fungurume copper towards the United States.

Why the timing mattered

Installing new leadership just as Gécamines took on a much larger and more commercially exposed trading role suggested Kinshasa wanted its own, closely vetted appointees overseeing decisions with real financial stakes attached, rather than leaving that responsibility with holdovers from a previous political configuration. Kabemba's background in mining-sector consulting, rather than in politics or engineering, also signalled an intent to professionalise Gécamines' finance and trading functions as it moved from a passive royalty collector to an active market participant. The changes reflected how central Congo's profile in global mineral supply chains had become, and how much scrutiny — both domestic and international — now attached to who controlled the state's growing commercial interests in its own copper and cobalt wealth. Foreign operators including Glencore, CMOC and ERG, all of whom share ownership of their Congolese mines with Gécamines, would now deal with an entirely new set of counterparts on land access, marketing agreements and joint-venture governance going forward.

Sources

• Miningmx: DRC replaces top officials at state mining company, 24 Feb 2026

Photo: A map of the Democratic Republic of Congo overlaid with its national flag. FunafutiTuvalu, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.