Bloomberg reported that the International Monetary Fund halted the Democratic Republic of Congo's USD 532 million, three year loan program after the government failed to publish details of a 2011 mining deal.
The lender, based in Washington had asked the government make public the contract for the June 2011 sale by state owned copper miner Gecamines of its 25% in the Comide Sprl copper project to a British Virgin Islands company called Straker International Corporation.
Mr Oscar Melhado the IMF's resident representative in Congo said that the government only published notes on the sale which the IMF deemed insufficient. We applied the concept of strict conditionality because we believe that transparency in the mining sector is key for the country. Congo will lose out on three loan disbursements worth a total of about USD 225 million.
According to IMF data, Congo, a Central African nation the size of Western Europe with a population of about 68 million people is the world's poorest country with per capita gross domestic product of USD 349.
The United Nations Development Program ranked Congo the least developed country in the world last year and it remains near the bottom of Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index.
Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation listed in London became Comide's biggest shareholder in 2010 when it purchased 50.5% of Camrose Resources Limited from Dan Gertler an Israeli mining investor who still owns part of the project.
According to ENRC, mining began in November 2011 at the site which has reserves of 10 million tonnes of copper at a grade of 1.77% and total resources of 34.7 million tonnes of copper with an average grade of 2.02% copper and 0.23% cobalt.
Mr Martin Kabwelulu mines minister of Congo said that the government had published all the information the IMF requested about the project and called its decision to halt the loan program unconsidered. The Comide deal resolved old litigation between Comide's partners and the government had no part in it. It's regrettable that this program was canceled in this manner.
