(Agence Ecofin) – The Congolese government unveiled the draft Finance Law 2025, an increase of 21%, with resources and expenditure reaching 49,847 billion Congolese francs, or a little more than 18 billion dollars. The contribution of Mines should once again be crucial.
In the DRC, the government forecasts economic growth of 5.7% in 2024, supported in particular by a growth rate of 5.3% in the mining sector. This information comes from the draft Finance Law 2025, which also provides estimates of expected revenues next year from mining.
If the authorities have not presented the factors that will support the growth of mining activity in 2025, it is possible to make some hypotheses. Industrial mining production should continue to increase, driven in particular by the recent expansion of the country’s largest copper mine, Kamoa-Kakula. It now has an annual production capacity of 600,000 tonnes of concentrate, compared to around 400,000 tonnes planned for this year.
Copper production should therefore continue its upward trend of recent years, which has enabled the DRC to establish itself as the 2th world producer of copper. After 2.8 million tonnes exported in 2023, the research firm BMI expects a growth of 4.5% in production in 2024. The DRC should also record an increase in its zinc production in 2025, for the first full year of operation of the Kipushi mine. Commissioned in July, the mine has an annual production capacity of 278,000 tonnes of zinc concentrate.
The country will also be able to count on the still significant contribution of the Kibali gold mine, the largest in Africa with its annual production capacity of more than 700,000 ounces. Cobalt production, Congolese exports of which exceeded 150,000 tonnes in 2023, is also expected to remain important in the growth of the mining sector. The government finally granted a mining permit this year for the Manono lithium deposit, which could lead to new investments to prepare for the start of production.
The draft Finance Law provides for mining revenues of 14.82 trillion Congolese francs ($5 billion), an increase of 41% compared to the previously announced project. The main contributors to this growth are revenues from customs and excise, with an expected increase of 107.7% thanks in particular to the removal of an exemption from customs fees on exports of certain mining products. Tax revenues and non-tax revenues are also expected to increase by 16.8% and 42.4% respectively.
In total, the Congolese government forecasts a contribution of around 30% from the mining sector to public revenues expected at 49.8 trillion Congolese francs ($16.9 billion) in 2025. Since at least 2018, Congolese media Bankable notes that the DRC’s mining revenues are on an upward slope with the adoption of a new mining code. Over the period 2018-2022, the IMF reports that mining revenues reached an average of $5.5 billion per year, compared to an average of $4 billion per year over the period 2013-2017.
Emiliano Tossou
Also read:
04/10/2024 – The DRC well placed to benefit from a 34% increase in the price of tin in 2024
Related News :