Amid Chaos, Cobalt-Rich Congo Gets $1.5 Billion Loan From IMF

The International Monetary Fund announced on Wednesday that it and the Democratic Republic of the Congo had reached a staff-level agreement regarding the last evaluation of a USD 1.5 billion loan program. The IMF also mentioned that the Congo must appropriately manage funds from a revised mining agreement.

Congo is now one step closer to finishing its first-ever IMF program. Previous accords have been derailed by various problems, such as the extensive mining sector's lack of transparency.

The agreement will permit the payment of a final tranche of approximately $200 million after it has been approved by the IMF board.

The IMF pointed out that the third-largest producer of copper and the world's top supplier of cobalt, a mineral used in smartphones, needed to factor in the benefits of a recently modified Sicomines joint venture with Chinese businesses in its updated budget law for 2024.

One of the requirements of the IMF program was the publication of mining contracts. This week, Congo released the long-awaited details of the revised Sicomines terms, which include approximately $7 billion in infrastructure investments from China

The DRC possesses the greatest cobalt reserves and the seventh-largest copper reserves in the world. By 2025, there will be three times as much demand for cobalt as there was in 2010, according to a report by Amnesty International.

Demand for particular metals, such as copper and cobalt, which are necessary for the production of lithium-ion batteries, has increased along with the demand for so-called clean energy technologies. Mobile phones and other electronic devices are powered by these batteries.

There has never been more demand for these batteries as more nations shift to renewable energy sources. A white paper report from the World Economic Forum projects that the global demand for cobalt will quadruple by 2030, primarily as a result of the widespread use of electric vehicles.