The first US shipment of copper from mines in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to be transported by the Lobito Atlantic Railway (LAR) has been loaded.
A cargo of copper cathodes is headed to Baltimore after arriving by train at the port of Lobito in Angola on August 19, global commodities trader Trafigura Group, which is part of a consortium with a concession for the line, said in a statement.
The shipment follows several previous shipments of copper to ports in Europe and the Far East since the Lobito Atlantic Railway took over the concession in January of this year.
LAR, a joint venture backed by Trafigura, Portuguese construction group Mota-Engil and railway operator Vecturis, was granted a 30-year concession in 2022 to operate the 1,300-kilometer rail network.
The six-day rail journey demonstrated “the time-efficient western route to market that is now available for minerals and metals produced in the Congolese Copperbelt,” Trafigura said.
The Lobito corridor is seen as a key export route from mines in Congo and Zambia for minerals critical to the energy transition, including copper and cobalt.
The US and EU, under the Group of Seven’s Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment, are supporting the project as part of efforts to counter China’s dominance in the Central African Copperbelt.
Comments
Mark
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So while China is building cities with transportation system (road and rails) and many other infrastructure projects to benefits Africa the West is building rail to deprive the continent of its natural resources.
Sound like the rail is simply to move as much copper… as fast as possible before the sleeping Africans wake from their slumber.🇯🇲🇯🇲🇯🇲🇯🇲🇯🇲
To counter China’s influence in Africa is to STOP the progress China is helping Africa to make….
To STOP China’s from helping Africa is to prevent Africa from growing.
If the laggered head African leaders would try and think they would realise.