Mercuria and Glencore Secure Copper Supply from Congo’s State Miner

Mercuria Energy Group and Glencore have renewed agreements to purchase copper from the Democratic Republic of Congo’s state mining company, Gecamines, following the company's decision to independently market its share of output from joint ventures.

The two trading firms secured deals to buy copper from the Tenke Fungurume mine, a major operation majority-owned by China’s CMOC Group. According to sources familiar with the matter, Mercuria was allocated 50% of Gecamines’ share of production, while Glencore received 25%. The remaining 25% has yet to be assigned.

These allocations match those from last year when Gecamines first opted to market its share separately to gain greater transparency in mineral pricing. In that previous round, the final 25% was awarded to Trafigura Group.

Neither Mercuria nor Glencore provided comments on the deal, and Gecamines has not responded to inquiries.

According to Congolese government data, the Tenke Fungurume mine produced 409,410 tonnes of copper and 24,003 tonnes of cobalt in the past year. Gecamines maintains a 20% equity stake in the operation.