The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has appointed Kompay Koko Ngiemi as interim director general of its artisanal mining agency while the government tightens controls over mineral production and trading in the country's copper-cobalt region.
Authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have detained around 300 Chinese nationals in a crackdown on suspected illegal mining in the country’s copper belt, with most of the detentions reported in Kolwezi, a major copper and cobalt mining centre.
Ivanhoe Mines has increased the mineral resource at its Makoko District copper discovery in the DRC by 30%, to roughly 12 million tonnes of contained copper, on the back of an aggressive 2026 drilling campaign.
Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange hit a fresh record near $14,635 a tonne on 8 September 2026, driven by tariff-related trade distortion and falling DRC output.
Ivanhoe Mines expanded its Makoko copper discovery in the DRC by 30% to about 12 million tonnes of contained copper, and plans a scoping study for early 2027.
US imports of refined copper from the DRC reached a record 53,290 tonnes in July, exceeding the volume imported throughout 2024, as Chinese purchases from Congo declined.
