Sicomines Copper-Cobalt Mine: Chinese Financing for Transition Minerals

Due to a landmark resource-for-infrastructure (RFI) deal that reshaped the DRC’s extractive industry, the Sicomines copper and cobalt mine sits at the center of debates over resource sovereignty in mineral-rich countries. Located in the Mutshatsha Territory of the Kolwezi District, the construction of the majority Chinese-owned mine began in 2013 after extensive negotiations. Chinese creditors not only bankrolled the development of the mine, but also supported its operations.

This mining site profile provides a detailed overview of Chinese state-directed financing, ownership, and operations of the Sicomines mine. It includes granular information on the mine's funding sources (loans, lenders, and co-financing), acquisition history, ownership structure, implementation milestones, ESG challenges, and risk mitigation measures.

The insights in this profile are derived from AidData’s Chinese Financing for Transition Minerals Dataset, Version 1.0 and the sources referenced therein. This dataset captures $56.9 billion of official sector financial commitments that China provided to 19 low- and middle-income countries between 2000 and 2021 for projects involving the extraction or processing of copper, cobalt, lithium, nickel, and rare earth elements. An accompanying report, Power Playbook: Beijing’s Bid to Secure Overseas Transition Minerals, analyzes the dataset and provides evidence about the nature, scale, and scope of the PRC’s overseas financing for the extraction and processing of energy transition minerals.