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UK-based climate fund manager Camco Clean Energy has partnered with Energy Peace Partners (EPP) to manage the Peace Renewable Energy Credit (P-Rec) Aggregation Fund.

The DR Congo government has confirmed a deal with consultants to evaluate the potential of onshore and offshore sedimentary basins – including the prospective Albertine Graben, Lake Kivu Graben and Tanganyika Graben areas – as it looks to attract international oil companies (IOCs) ahead of a licensing round due to be launched in late July.

Major trading houses are among those approaching potentially hugely lucrative cobalt and other energy transition plays in Democratic Republic of Congo with an eye to ESG concerns, as international scrutiny of mining practises – and especially the huge involvement of artisanal miners – intensifies as the world looks for inputs into its new electric vehicles and batteries, write Marc Howard and AE staff.

Commodity giant Glencore has pleaded guilty and agreed to pay the US authorities almost $1.2bn to end investigations into bribery and market manipulation. The settlement was part of a coordinated resolution with criminal and civil authorities in the US, UK, and Brazil announced on 24 May.

Surging prices for wheat, oil and other commodities are placing strain on individuals, businesses and governments, with an increasing number of sub-Saharan countries now classed as ‘debt-stressed’. Defaults may be avoided this year, but ‘food riots’ could flare up. Yet commodity exporters may profit as the energy transition and geopolitical shifts present opportunities for everything from natural gas to transition minerals, writes Marc Howard, with African Energy staff.

As African countries seek to use their resources more productively, cobalt may be a prime example of a natural resource, now only exported as a raw material, that could spur industrialisation. But much depends on whether weak governments in host countries can manage such a transition.

The World Bank Group has debarred two hydroelectric power equipment arms of Voith Hydro Holding, for what it called collusive and corrupt practices connected to projects in Pakistan and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

A plan by Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to auction 16 oil and gas blocks has attracted opposition from environmental groups, who accuse President Félix Tshisekedi’s government of threatening a sensitive ecosystem.

Andritz's refurbishment of the Mwadingusha hydroelectric power (HEP) plant in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)’s Katanga province shows the potential for mobilising anchor mining clients to deliver wider power supply in DRC’s under-performing electricity supply industry. In this case the backers were Canada’s Ivanhoe Mines and China’s Zijin Mining Group who own Africa’s largest copper plant, the Kamoa-Kakula Copper Project joint venture in Lualaba province. 

Dubai-based Amea Power has signed a memorandum of understanding with Democratic Republic of Congo state utility Société Nationale d’Electricité (Snel) to develop a 100MW solar PV project.

There have been further developments in the government’s efforts to claw back advantageous conditions offered to Chinese investors under the $6bn infrastructure-for-minerals deal agreed with Beijing by ex-president Joseph Kabila Kabange.

The Tshisekedi government’s announcement that Israeli billionaire Dan Gertler’s Ventora Development would return control of its mining and oil assets to Democratic Republic of Congo puts assets back into play including the Albertine Graben blocks 1 and 2, managed by Gertler’s company Oil of DRCongo. But there are potential further complications from continued US sanctions against Gertler and over exactly what’s in the deal, writes François Misser.

Democratic Republic of Congo has the resources – if not yet the right governance framework – to help meet rising global demand for rare earth minerals. China has so far made much of the running with such resources, prompting economic and strategic concern in the US and Europe where DRC’s potential has not gone unnoticed, writes François Misser.

President Tshisekedi has laid the first stone of the Banana deep-sea harbour, an essential piece of infrastructure if the Grand Inga hydropower project is to move ahead.

Democratic Republic of Congo has aspirations to become the world leader in emerging battery technologies, but despite its mineral assets, clear political will and grandiose statements from potential donors, considerable challenges need to be addressed before the country can move beyond its traditional role as supplier of raw materials, writes François Misser with Jon Marks.