GeoQuest (DRC) has converted into Central African Mining Services (CAMS). Could you introduce the focus of the new company?

GeoQuest has split into two separate entities – a Zambian-based entity that will continue under the name of GeoQuest, and a DRC-based entity rebranded into “Central African Mining Services” that I own 100%. CAMS will be registered as a limited company operative in the DRC, Gabon and Congo Brazzaville and will comply with the DRC Subcontractor Law.

Congo Brazzaville and Gabon forms a small but underexploited market with a lot of potential and many new investors attracted by iron, gold and base metals deposits. Congo Brazzaville is also French-speaking and reasonably well-connected to the Katanga region, which makes it a logical sister market.

Gabon is highly endowed with manganese in the south, but also iron in the north of the country, at the border with Congo Brazzaville. In the Gabonese rainforests there are many underexplored gold occurrences that only artisanal miners have exploited. Then, along the border with Equatorial Guinea, Gabon contains a large gold belt equally untapped.

What can you tell us about the current state of the DRC mining industry?

Whereas Zambia is going through a transitional phase, freezing down administrative decisions and with a stagnant copper production – stuck at around 600,000 mt/y, the DRC continued to deliver higher copper volumes. MMG alone is aiming to produce 50,000 mt/y Cu. The DRC market is completed by smaller companies, now producing under Chinese ownership which make them more impenetrable to local services.

In general terms, I see the mining industry in the two southern provinces as healthy. In the west, the Lualaba Province, there has been increased activity for cobalt, while in Lubumbashi and Haut Katanga the industry is copper-focused and increasingly Chinese-dominated. Mining companies with a HQ in mainland China or in Hong Kong are often state-owned and have a different modus operandi compared to Western international corporations. CAMS already has access to the biggest 5-6 companies in the region, together with incoming juniors, mostly Australian and Canadian, and it is only a matter of time before we can approach more Chinese-owned players. We are already working with MMG.

How do you observe the current exploration cycle in the DRC?

The DRC continues to see interest from juniors, but not as much as it had in 2018-2019, when Western companies had mushroomed in the region. Today, the few juniors in the country compete for properties with other groups, some from India and some from Arab countries, so it is interesting to see the amalgamation of international players in the Congo. Explorers are mostly searching for base metals, followed by energy metals in the northern regions, between Kolwezi and Rwanda and going into the troubled area of Kivu where insecurity is still very problematic. Other prospects lie in places like Kasai, Bandundu and on the fringes of rainforests, which are accessible only as fly-in, fly-out.

Could you explain to our international audience the nature of the instability in Kivu?

The DRC has been mired in violence for many years, the situation being most exacerbated in the Ituri and Kivu regions. This is an old story of old remnants of the Hutu army fleeing from Rwanda into the Kivu jungles 25 years ago. Since then, they have recruited youth, taken hostages from local villages and caused havoc wherever they went. Towards the border with South Sudan, along the Uganda border, and the border to the Central African Republic – these are all areas where the government has lost a great deal of control. Normal life has become impossible in these areas, and both the Congolese army and the UN forces seem to have given up. The US Army had tried to intervene with a taskforce, but they soon retreated because they could not even locate the rebel groups, all scattered and hiding in the jungles.

What are your company’s key priorities in the near future?

Our immediate focus will be to complete the legal and financial registrations, and then to broaden our client base. The goal is to secure more long-term clients close to home, in Haut Katanga or Lualaba, before making the move to Gabon. In the future, I will assess the option of setting up an office in Pointe-Noire because the city used to have a number of labs that could fit perfectly well with our exploration services offer.

CAMS offers a broad exploration services package including camp construction and management, but also catering for camps, and we have developed a strong expertise in general logistics and project management. New companies can de-risk their business by using a subcontractor to take care of all these aspects, from exploration, to logistics and admin.