Glencore, Mercuria Energy Group, and Trafigura Group have successfully bid to purchase copper from the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) state miner, Gecamines, which is marketing metal from its joint venture projects for the first time.
The three global commodity trading giants won bids to buy copper from the Tenke Fungurume mine, operated by China’s CMOC Group, according to sources familiar with the matter.
As competition for copper intensifies, Gecamines may present further opportunities for traders by selling its share of production from other joint ventures in the DRC, the world’s second-largest copper producer. In the past, these joint ventures sold their entire output independently.
None of the involved companies—Glencore, Trafigura, Mercuria, or CMOC—provided comments on the transaction. Gecamines also declined to respond to inquiries.
In July, Bloomberg reported that Gecamines, which holds a 20% stake in Tenke, was evaluating offers for 90,000 tons of copper from the project, representing about 20% of Tenke’s 2023 copper output.
Mercuria, which recently recruited Trafigura’s former co-head of metals, Kostas Bintas, in a strategic move into metals trading, will receive 50% of the copper awarded by Gecamines. Glencore, which operates two mines in the DRC, and Trafigura will split the remaining copper, according to insiders.
Tenke Fungurume is one of the largest copper mines in the DRC, producing 361,000 tons of copper and 23,000 tons of cobalt last year, based on government data. CMOC is currently increasing output at the site for both metals.
Gecamines has also requested bids for its share of cobalt—produced as a byproduct of copper mining—from Tenke, though this sale has not yet been finalized, according to one source.
The DRC accounted for nearly 75% of global cobalt production last year. However, cobalt prices have plummeted by over 70% since early 2022 due to surging output, particularly from CMOC’s two mines in the DRC, outpacing market demand.
