Luanda - Trafigura and Kamoa-Kakula companies signed Wednesday in South Africa, an agreement for the transportation of minerals through the Lobito Corridor with LAR - Atlantic Lobito Corridor, the company that manages the operation of the Lobito Corridor.
According to a press release sent to ANGOP, the agreement marks the first long-term commercial commitments with the Lobito Corridor, a new import and export trade route between the African Copper Belt and Angola's Atlantic coast.
Trafigura CEO, Jeremy Weir, said he expects other clients to join Ivanhoe Mines and Trafigura in the coming months.
"We are pleased to be one of the first clients to sign a long-term contract with LAR to use its services in the Lobito Corridor," he said.
The founder and co-chief executive of Ivanhoe Mines, Robert Friedland, said his company been working intensively with partners in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola to build a new supply chain that is fast becoming one of the most important trade routes for the transport of copper metal, a mineral that is vital to the whole world.
The Lobito Corridor is expected to reach an annual export capacity of one million tonnes per year before the end of this decade. Trafigura's export capacity allocation through the LAR will be up to 450,000 tonnes per year from 2025.
In 2022, the Lobito Atlantic Railway consortium made up of Trafigura, Mota-Engil and Vecturis, was awarded a 30-year concession for the operation, management and maintenance of the Lobito Corridor and the Mineral Terminal at the Port of Lobito.
When fully modernized the route will provide a more efficient and lower carbon emission route to the copper, cobalt and other metals market crucial to the energy transition and will operate in a commercially open manner with the entire market.
The Lobito Corridor facelift project is supported by the governments of Angola, the DRC, Zambia and the US government's Partnership for Global Infrastructure Investment (PGII).
It represents an investment of more than 500 million US dollars over the life of the concession, with potential funding of at least 250 million US dollars from the US International Development Finance Corporation.
The investment will allow for the renovation of sections of the railway line and associated infrastructure, as well as guaranteeing the acquisition of a further 1,500 wagons and 35 locomotives.HM/AC/AMP
