剛果國有礦業公司看好中資
The chairman of Gecamines, the state-controlled mining company in the Democratic Republic of Congo, has outlined ambitious plans to partner with Chinese investors to ramp up production of copper and other commodities in the resource-rich African country.
剛果民主共和國的國有控股礦業公司Gecamines的董事長介紹了雄心勃勃的計劃，打算與中國投資者合作，提高這個資源豐富的非洲國家的銅和其他大宗商品的產量。
Albert Yuma Mulimbi told the Financial Times he was dissatisfied with most existing joint ventures involving western mining companies, and claimed they had failed to generate adequate returns for Gecamines.
艾伯特.尤馬.穆林比(Albert Yuma Mulimbi)告訴英國《金融時報》，他對現有大多數跟西方礦業公司組建的合資企業感到不滿，稱它們未能爲Gecamines帶來足夠高的回報。
Gecamines is proposing to use a partnership with China Nonferrous Metal Mining Group to develop a major new copper mine as a blueprint for future joint ventures with other Chinese companies or overseas investors.
Gecamines提出，爲了開發一座新的大型銅礦而與中國有色礦業(China Nonferrous Metal Mining)組建的一家合資企業，可以作爲未來與其他中國企業或海外投資者組建合資企業的範本。
Mr Yuma said Gecamines was seeking to lift production at projects involving the company to more than 100,000 tonnes of copper a year by 2018, compared with less than 20,000 in 2015. As well as being home to 10 per cent of the world’s copper reserves, the DRC is also a major source of cobalt, widely used in so-called superalloys and lithium ion batteries.
尤馬錶示，Gecamines正尋求到2018年把該公司所參與項目的年度銅產量提高到10萬噸以上，而2015年的這一數字尚不足2萬噸。除了擁有世界銅儲量的10%，剛果民主共和國也是鈷的重要產地。鈷被廣泛應用於超耐熱合金和鋰離子電池。
“We want to become again, as in the past, one of the biggest players in copper and cobalt,” said Mr Yuma in an interview with the Financial Times.
“我們希望像以往那樣，再次成爲銅和鈷的最大供應方之一，”尤馬在接受英國《金融時報》採訪時說。
After the country’s mining sector was nationalised in the 1960s by the then dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, Gecamines became a major industry force, producing almost 500,000 tonnes of copper each year during the mid-1980s.
1960年代，該國的採礦業被當時的獨裁者蒙博託.塞塞.塞科(Mobutu Sese Seko)收歸國有。之後，Gecamines成爲了一支重要的行業力量，在1980年代中期的年度銅產量接近50萬噸。
But the company came close to collapse during the final years of Mobutu’s rule, which ended in 1997.
但Gecamines在蒙博託統治的最後幾年裏接近崩潰。蒙博託統治終結於1997年。
Mr Yuma said the DRC had been told in the early 2000s by international bodies such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to sell assets to overseas mining companies that would develop the projects and pay dividends and other income streams to the country.
尤馬錶示，在21世紀初，世界銀行(World Bank)和國際貨幣基金組織(IMF)等國際機構建議剛果民主共和國向海外礦業公司出售資產，後者將開發礦業項目，向該國提供紅利和其他收入。
This left Gecamines with minority interests in major DRC mines, with western companies such as Freeport-McMoRan of the US, Switzerland’s Glencore and Canada’s Ivanhoe Mines having controlling stakes and operating the projects.
這導致Gecamines在國內各大礦業項目中持有少數股權，而西方公司——如美國的自由港邁克墨倫(Freeport-McMoRan)、瑞士的嘉能可(Glencore)和加拿大的艾芬豪礦業(Ivanhoe Mines)——持有控股股份，並作爲項目作業方。
But Mr Yuma complained that existing deals with international companies had failed to generate dividends for Gecamines, which is burdened with almost $1.5bn of debt.
但是，尤馬抱怨稱，與海外公司達成的現有交易未能爲Gecamines帶來紅利，該公司目前揹負着近15億美元的債務。
“We don’t have dividends and all the revenue is exported and transferred,” he said. “So this kind of business is not good any more.”
“我們沒有收到紅利，所有營業收入都被輸出和轉移了，”他說。“所以這種生意不再是好業務了。”
Gecamines is embroiled in a legal dispute with Freeport over Tenke Fungurume, the DRC’s largest copper mine, where the two companies were partners.
眼下，Gecamines與自由港在Tenke Fungurume銅礦問題上深陷法律糾紛。兩家公司在剛果民主共和國的最大銅礦項目中曾是合作伙伴。
Freeport announced plans in May to sell its controlling stake in Tenke to China Molybdenum.
今年5月，自由港宣佈了把自己在Tenke Fungurume所持的控股股份出售給洛陽鉬業(China Molybdenum)的計劃。
Last week the deal was completed after Canada’s Lundin Mining, which owns 24 per cent of Tenke, said it had agreed to sell its stake to BHR Partners of China for $1.1bn.
最近，在擁有Tenke 24%股權的加拿大倫丁礦業(Lundin Mining)表示已同意將其股權以11億美元出售給中國的渤海華美(BHR Partners)之後，這筆交易已完成了。
Gecamines, which owns 20 per cent of Tenke, said the deals involving Freeport and Lundin ignored its pre-emptive rights to buy the stakes.
擁有Tenke 20%股權的Gecamines表示，自由港和倫丁礦業的交易忽視了其買斷股權的優先權利。
Gecamines has taken its case to an international court in Paris in an attempt to block the Freeport deal.
Gecamines已將此案訴至巴黎的一家國際法庭，企圖阻止自由港的那筆交易。
“We’re not blocking the Chinese,” said Mr Yuma, who claimed Gecamines had financial backing to buy Freeport’s stake. “We are blocking Freeport who want to sell without respecting our rights.”
“我們不是要阻止中資，”尤馬說。他聲稱，Gecamines擁有買下自由港所持股份的資金後臺。“我們要阻止自由港，是爲了不讓他們在不尊重我們權利的情況下出售股份。”
Meanwhile, in an effort to secure dividends and royalties from existing mines involving overseas companies, Gecamines is planning to audit all major projects in the DRC to see whether it has been treated fairly as a minority investor.
同時，爲了確保從海外公司入股的現有礦山獲得紅利和特許權使用費，Gecamines計劃對剛果民主共和國境內的所有大型項目進行審計，以判斷自己作爲少數股投資者是否得到了公平對待。
“We are conducting various audits in all the joint ventures we have because, I am sorry to say, generally speaking we are not happy with most of them,” said Mr Yuma.
尤馬說：“我們正對所有合資項目進行各種審計，因爲，我要遺憾地說，總體上看，我們對大多數合資項目都不滿意。”
He added the new partnership with China Nonferrous Metal Mining — under which the Chinese company has agreed to spend $2bn to build and operate a copper processing facility in the mineral-rich Katanga province — could be a suitable model for future joint ventures.
他接着說，與中國有色礦業組建的新合資企業，可能成爲未來合資企業的合適範本。中國有色礦業同意支付20億美元，在礦產豐富的加丹加省(Katanga)建造和經營一家銅加工工廠。
China Nonferrous Metal Mining will have a 51 per cent stake in the facility, with Gecamines holding the remainder, and Mr Yuma said the Chinese company would have its investment repaid through copper sales. Once this was done, he added Gecamines would aim to secure control of the project, suggesting that would happen within eight to 10 years.
中國有色礦業將擁有該廠51%的股份，而Gecamines持有餘下的股份。尤馬錶示，中國有色礦業將通過銅的銷售來收回投資。他接着說，一旦中方收回了投資，Gecamines將力求取得項目的控股權。他暗示，這將在8到10年內實現。
“That’s the new vision,” he added, indicating Gecamines initially wanted stakes as high as 49 per cent in future joint ventures, rather than the smaller ones it has in existing partnerships with overseas mining companies.
“這是新願景，”他補充說。他指出，Gecamines當初想要在未來合資企業中持有至多49%的股權，而不是像現在這樣，在與海外礦業公司組建的現有合資企業中持有較少股權。
“If you are not ready to do that . . . we’ll pull you out, push you out and if we have to fight in court to have a decision, we’ll do it,” he said.
“如果你不準備這樣做……我們會把你拉出來，把你推出去，如果我們非要訴至法庭以獲得一個判決，我們會那麼做的，”他說。
Analysts said Mr Yuma’s ability to execute his plan to increase production of copper and cobalt in the DRC could be hampered by the country’s political crisis.
對於尤馬提高國內銅和鈷產量的計劃，分析師們表示，他的執行能力可能會受到該國政治危機的阻礙。
Joseph Kabila, president, was due to step down this December but elections have been delayed until April 2018, raising tensions in the country. Angry opposition parties have promised to escalate their protest movement if Mr Kabila clings to office.
該國總統約瑟夫.卡比拉(Joseph Kabila)原定今年12月下臺，但現在選舉已被推遲到2018年4月，這加劇了該國的緊張局勢。憤怒的反對黨承諾，如果卡比拉拒不下臺，他們將升級抗議運動。
Campaigners have called on Gecamines to be more transparent and also question whether the company can raise financing for projects.
活動人士們則呼籲Gecamines提高透明度，並質疑該公司能否爲項目融到資金。
“They are a black box in the middle of the Congolese mineral system,” said Nathaniel Dyer of Global Witness. “They haven’t been able to demonstrate on a large scale the ability to carry out these copper projects themselves. They would need to massively up their game in terms of corporate governance.”
“他們是剛果採礦體系中的一個黑匣子，”全球見證(Global Witness)的納撒尼爾.戴爾(Nathaniel Dyer)說。“他們無法大規模地展示自己具有實施這些銅項目的能力。他們需要大幅度提高公司治理水平。”
Freeport and Lundin declined to comment on Mr Yuma’s complaint about dividends.
自由港和倫丁礦業拒絕就尤馬對紅利的抱怨置評。
However, one person familiar with Tenke said it had not paid dividends because the mining companies needed to recover their costs and the funds invested in the project. He added the companies had paid taxes and other monies for exploration to the DRC.
然而，一位熟悉Tenke的人士說，該項目沒有支付紅利，是因爲礦業公司需要收回自己的成本和項目初期投資。他接着說，相關企業已向剛果民主共和國繳納了稅款和其他勘探費用。
Glencore declined to comment. While its DRC operations have not issued a dividend, last year Glencore paid $600m in taxes and royalties to the country.
嘉能可拒絕置評。雖然在剛果民主共和國的業務從未發放紅利，但去年嘉能可向該國支付了6億美元的稅款和特許權使用費。
Ivanhoe was not immediately available for comment.
記者未能立即聯繫到艾芬豪礦業請其置評。
