DRC government approves draft Manono lithium agreement

The recently sworn-in government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has approved a draft inter-ministerial decree and draft cooperation agreement with Australia-based AVZ Minerals regarding the development of the Manono lithium-tin project.

The creation of a special economic zone for the project that hosts one of the world's largest hard rock lithium resources is part of the cooperation agreement, AVZ said.

"The formal decree relating to the cooperation agreement with AVZ and the formal cooperation agreement are expected to be signed by the DRC government as soon as is practicable and hopefully in May 2021," the company said, adding that both documents will deliver economic benefits to the project.

A front-end engineering study is being finalised and will be incorporated into a restructured definitive feasibility study to be released shortly.

Three binding offtake agreements are in place with downstream Chinese chemical converters representing more than 80pc of initial output. One agreement is also in place for by-product tin production.

Manono has a mineral resource of more than 400mn t and a proven and probable reserve of over 90mn t, giving it the capacity to produce around 700,000 t/yr of spodumene concentrate with first output anticipated in 2023.

By Angus Macmillan