Democratic Republic of Congo has launched a nationwide airborne geological mapping programme aimed at improving knowledge of its vast mineral reserves to reduce exploration risk and attract investment into underexplored regions, its geological agency said.
Congo is the world’s largest cobalt producer and Africa’s top copper producer, but authorities say less than 10% of the country’s territory has been thoroughly explored.
The government has been tightening its grip over the mining sector, seeking a larger share of revenues from existing operations and extending control to geological information that underpins future discoveries.
The mapping project, known as PC2G-RDC, will use high-resolution airborne geophysical surveys to improve geological knowledge of Congo’s subsurface to help identify areas with mineral potential and expand scientific understanding of its subsurface resources, the National Geological Service of the Congo (SGNC) said in a statement on Monday.
SGNC is implementing the programme with technical support from Spanish geophysics firm Xcalibur. It will focus on the Kongo Central, Kwango, Kwilu and Greater Kasai regions, building on work already carried out in Greater Katanga, the statement said.
Mines Minister Louis Watum Kabamba said at the launch the programme would expand the country’s geoscientific coverage to 46.1% from 22.27%.
“The sovereignty does not begin when a mineral is extracted. It begins when the state knows its territory, owns its maps, controls its data, preserves its samples, develops its laboratories and trains the experts capable of interpreting that information,” SGNC Director General Raoul Wazenga Vitima said. “Congo should not only be better mapped; it should increasingly be capable of mapping itself.”
Officials said the surveys would modernise existing datasets, help identify new prospective areas and strengthen the state’s capacity to plan and negotiate resource development.
(Reporting by Ange Adihe Kasongo and Fiston Mahamba; Editing by Maxwell Akalaare Adombila and Susan Fenton)
