THE SIGNAL
A US$300 million electricity interconnector between Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo has moved into a new development structure, with African infrastructure investor Gridworks intending to become majority shareholder and commodities trader Trafigura arranging a substantial portion of the debt.
The 200km Kalumbila-Kolwezi Interconnector is designed to enable imports of up to 550MW into the DRC's copper and cobalt belt. A Trafigura executive estimates that replacing diesel generation could save Congolese miners about US$1 billion annually. The calculation has not been disclosed, the generation supporting those imports has not been identified publicly and the project has not reached financial close.
Trafigura already sits on the Copperbelt's other major infrastructure axis as a shareholder in the Lobito Atlantic Railway consortium. On 25 September, rival commodities trader Mercuria committed US$250 million to Exergy Energy for African generation and transmission projects, with Zambia central to the initial pipeline. Within eleven days, two global commodity traders had moved further into infrastructure surrounding Copperbelt production.
Perseus Mining, the African-focused gold producer operating mines in Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire, faces a different capital decision. It has US$1.03 billion in cash and bullion, but chief executive Craig Jones says elevated gold prices are making acquisitions harder to close because buyers and sellers cannot agree on valuations. Perseus is not facing an immediate reserve cliff: Edikan has more than seven years of life on current reserves and Sissingué has been extended to 2030. That gives it room to compare acquisitions against investment at Yaouré and its Nyanzaga development in Tanzania.
In Ghana, Galiano Gold, the Canadian operator of the Asanko Gold Mine, has secured extensions of the Abirem and Miradani mining leases through 2041 and 2043. The rights are clearer than the national policy environment. The mining bill laid before Parliament in May contains a 15-year maximum initial lease term, while the minister subsequently referred publicly to a 20-year maximum.
Zambia's Konkola Copper Mines, controlled by Vedanta Resources with ZCCM-IH holding 20.6%, is advancing a second Tailings Leach Plant at Nchanga. Its US$498 million China NERIN engineering, procurement and construction contract is one component of a project CopperTech estimates will require about US$741 million. The funding route remains incomplete, while regulators separately investigate a September pollution incident involving existing KCM infrastructure.
These developments put different constraints around available capital. KKIP still needs generation and binding financing. Perseus needs an acquisition price it can defend. Galiano has secured tenure while the future legal regime remains unsettled. KCM has an approved project whose complete funding structure is still unresolved.
NEWS»
DRC's US$300m Power Link Puts Trafigura on Both Sides of the Copperbelt Supply Chain
The Kalumbila-Kolwezi Interconnector Project, a proposed 200km high-voltage connection between Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo's copper and cobalt mining region, has secured a strategic development framework involving the DRC's Strategic Investment Fund, Congolese power developer EnPower, commodities trader Trafigura and Gridworks Development Partners.
The partners estimate construction at US$300 million. Gridworks intends to become majority shareholder, while Trafigura has agreed to arrange a significant portion of the debt.
No final equity structure, executed debt package or financial close has been announced.
Why it matters
The project partners estimate that the DRC Copperbelt has an electricity deficit exceeding 1GW.
The interconnector would run from Kalumbila in Zambia to Kolwezi in the DRC, creating another route through which electricity from the Southern African Power Pool could reach one of the world's largest copper and cobalt producing districts.
The line has a 700MW technical transmission capacity and is initially intended to enable imports of up to 550MW into the DRC.
Those figures measure different things. The first describes what the infrastructure can technically carry. The second describes the import capability currently contemplated.
A Trafigura executive estimates that miners could save roughly US$1 billion annually by replacing expensive diesel generation with grid electricity.
That figure establishes the potential scale of the power-cost problem. It does not establish the interconnector's return.
The reviewed disclosures do not provide the calculation behind the estimate, the delivered electricity tariff, contracted mining customers or final transmission charges.
There is also a supply-side constraint.
Transmission capacity does not create electricity.
Zambia itself has experienced severe drought-driven load-shedding and is pursuing a large expansion in generation capacity. A connection capable of importing 550MW into the DRC only becomes commercially useful when enough generation is available upstream and can be contracted on terms competitive with the alternatives available to mining companies.
Extractives Daily view
Trafigura's involvement extends beyond financing another infrastructure asset.
It is already part of the consortium operating the Lobito Atlantic Railway, which links the DRC Copperbelt to Angola's Atlantic coast. It is now arranging debt for infrastructure intended to bring power into the same producing region.
Mercuria is moving along a parallel path. On 25 September, it signed a US$250 million investment agreement with Exergy Energy for power generation and transmission projects across Africa, with Zambia prominent in the initial pipeline.
Within eleven days, two large commodity traders had committed themselves to Copperbelt-related power infrastructure.
Commodity traders are moving beyond purchasing and financing metal into infrastructure that influences the cost and reliability of producing and exporting it.
A copper tonne needs both a production route and an evacuation route. Lobito addresses the latter. KKIP is intended to address one of the former constraints by increasing access to electricity.
But the KKIP proposition is still incomplete.
Gridworks' proposed majority ownership does not disclose the final equity contributions or shareholder rights. Trafigura's role as debt arranger does not disclose the size, tenor, pricing or security of the financing. No long-term mining customer contracts have been published.
The origin of the electricity is equally important.
If Zambia or other Southern African Power Pool markets cannot offer dependable surplus generation at the required time, the economic value of new transmission capacity falls. If generation is available but expensive, the savings attributed to diesel displacement narrow.
EnPower has worked on the interconnector since 2017. The new framework may be the point at which that development work becomes financeable, but the public documents do not yet establish that outcome.
The next evidence is contractual: committed generation, mine or utility offtake, final equity subscriptions, executed debt and financial close.
Perseus Says High Gold Prices Are Giving Buyers More Cash and Sellers Higher Expectations
Perseus Mining, an ASX- and TSX-listed gold producer operating Edikan in Ghana and Sissingué and Yaouré in Côte d'Ivoire, says gold M&A remains active but transactions are becoming harder to close because buyers and sellers are using different assumptions about future gold prices.
Chief executive Craig Jones told Reuters that uncertainty over where gold prices ultimately settle is widening the valuation gap between prospective buyers and sellers.
Perseus ended June with US$1.03 billion in cash and bullion and US$400 million of undrawn debt capacity.
Its constraint is therefore not simply access to acquisition capital.
Why it matters
High gold prices strengthen producer cash flows while increasing the value sellers place on ounces they already control.
A buyer applying a conservative long-term gold assumption can reach a materially lower asset valuation than an owner incorporating more of today's elevated price environment into future cash flows.
Perseus has time to be selective. Edikan has more than seven years of mine life on current reserves, Sissingué and its satellites have been extended to 2030, and Yaouré provides a longer-duration production base.
It also owns 9.4% of PDI Gold, the ASX- and TSX-listed company created through the Predictive Discovery-Robex combination, whose portfolio includes the Bankan development project in Guinea.
Extractives Daily view
Perseus does not need to buy simply to solve an immediate production problem.
Its organic investments at Yaouré and Nyanzaga compete directly with acquisitions for capital.
That gives the current gold market an unusual M&A dynamic. Buyers have more cash, but sellers also have stronger cash flows and less reason to accept valuations built on conservative long-term gold prices.
A producer with more than US$1 billion of cash and bullion can therefore rationally prefer reserves it already controls to ounces another owner prices on assumptions it does not share.
Its earlier offer for Predictive Discovery lapsed after Robex improved its competing proposal, illustrating how a well-funded buyer can still fail to secure an asset when competing valuations diverge.
The transactions that actually close will show how much of today's gold environment buyers are prepared to capitalise into African mine valuations.
Galiano Secures Asanko Leases Beyond 2040 as Ghana's New Lease Ceiling Remains Unresolved
Galiano Gold, the Canadian operator holding 90% of Ghana's Asanko Gold Mine, has secured extensions of the Abirem mining lease through 2041 and the Miradani lease through 2043.
The rights cover deposits and infrastructure central to the operating gold mine.
Why it matters
The extensions arrive during an unresolved debate over Ghana's proposed Minerals and Mining Bill.
The bill laid and gazetted on 26 May 2026 contains a 15-year maximum initial mining-lease term in Clause 39(2)(a). The Ghana Chamber of Mines says Lands Minister Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah subsequently stated on 15 July that the maximum would be 20 years.
A ministerial statement does not amend a bill before Parliament. Unless Parliament changes the clause during consideration, the laid text remains the legislative proposal.
The Chamber's 7 October rejoinder also confirms a point Extractives Daily made in its 2 October edition: Ghana's special-share power is not new. Section 60 of the existing 2006 Act already provides for it.
Extractives Daily view
Galiano has secured long-term rights under the existing law while the rules governing future grants and renewals remain unsettled.
For the record, Extractives Daily's 2 October description of 15 years as the provision in the "current draft" is more precisely stated as the provision in the bill as laid in May. The minister has since publicly stated a different 20-year maximum. Which figure survives Parliament remains unresolved.
Gold Fields provides another tenure test at Tarkwa, where five leases expire in April 2027.
It no longer has Asanko exposure. Gold Fields disposed of its 19.5% Galiano shareholding in September 2025 for C$151 million, and its remaining Asanko deferred, contingent and royalty-related interests were subsequently disposed of, with those transactions completed in Q2 2026.
Sources: Galiano Gold, Asanko mining-lease extensions | Citi Newsroom, Ghana Chamber of Mines rejoinder | Ghana Minerals and Mining Act 2006 | Gold Fields 2025 Integrated Annual Report, confirming disposal of its Galiano shareholding | Gold Fields H1 2026 results, confirming completion of the remaining Asanko-related disposals
Konkola's US$741m Tailings Project Still Needs Its Full Funding Route
Konkola Copper Mines, Zambia's integrated copper producer controlled by Vedanta Resources, has shareholder approval to advance a second Tailings Leach Plant at its Nchanga operation, but its estimated project cost is approximately US$741 million.
The US$498 million figure announced with China NERIN is the engineering, procurement and construction contract, leaving about US$243 million of estimated capital outside that package.
Why it matters
KCM signed the EPC agreement on 17 September.
The contract becomes effective on the later of 28 days after signing or receipt of the advance payment. Its earliest possible effective date is therefore 15 October 2026, provided the payment condition has also been satisfied.
ZCCM-IH's 7 October shareholder approval is a separate corporate milestone.
Funding remains unresolved.
CopperTech Metals, the proposed US-listed vehicle for Vedanta's controlling KCM interest, disclosed approximately US$670 million of outstanding KCM capital-support obligations against roughly US$372 million of expected net IPO proceeds.
That left approximately US$298 million of the support obligation beyond the expected IPO proceeds.
CopperTech's filing also outlined about US$2.7 billion of KCM capital expenditure through FY2031. Its proposed New York IPO was postponed, and no completed offering has been identified in the reviewed record.
Extractives Daily view
TLP2 therefore sits inside a much larger KCM funding programme.
Shareholder approval and an EPC contract establish a project structure. They do not establish that the US$741 million plant is fully financed.
The environmental context creates a separate execution issue.
Regulators are investigating a September pollution incident involving existing KCM infrastructure. KCM disputes the government's attribution and has asked for an evidence-based determination. TLP2 should not be linked causally to an incident that occurred before the new facility was built.
Regulatory sensitivity also follows the unrelated February 2025 Sino-Metals tailings failure at Chambishi, which released acidic material into waterways connected to the Kafue system.
KCM's next tests are specific: EPC effectiveness, advance payment, complete project funding, construction commencement and final regulatory findings on the September incident.
WHAT TO WATCH NEXT
DRC-Zambia: Contracted generation, electricity-supply agreements, final equity commitments, executed debt facilities and financial close for Kalumbila-Kolwezi.
Perseus: The valuation assumptions embedded in the next African gold acquisition Perseus pursues or another contested transaction that closes.
Ghana: Parliamentary treatment of Clause 39 and whether the maximum initial lease term remains 15 years, becomes 20 years or is amended again.
Konkola: 15 October at the earliest for EPC effectiveness, subject to advance payment, followed by full project financing and final findings on the September pollution incident.
LISTED EXPOSURE
This section identifies listed companies with exposure to the commodities and jurisdictions covered above, so that readers can compare how the same country or sector development may affect different operators. It covers named participants in today's stories first, then other listed companies active in the same jurisdiction on the same commodity.
Exposure varies enormously in both size and directness, and several of the most important operators in these jurisdictions are private or state-owned and therefore absent. Inclusion is not investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security.
DRC | Copper, Cobalt and Power
Ivanhoe Mines | TSX: IVN
Direct producing exposure: Co-developer of Kamoa-Kakula. Reliable imported electricity is relevant to future mining and processing growth.
Zijin Mining | HKEX: 2899 / SSE: 601899
Direct producing exposure: Joint-venture owner of Kamoa-Kakula and directly exposed to major Lualaba electricity demand.
CMOC Group | HKEX: 3993 / SSE: 603993
Direct producing exposure: Controls Tenke Fungurume and Kisanfu, making reliable regional power relevant to large-scale copper-cobalt production.
Glencore | LSE: GLEN
Direct producing exposure: Operates major DRC copper and cobalt assets. Watch whether additional interconnector capacity develops into competitive contracted supply.
Zambia | Copper
First Quantum Minerals | TSX: FM
Regional infrastructure exposure: Operates Sentinel at Kalumbila near the proposed Zambian interconnector point. No equity interest in KKIP has been established.
ZCCM Investments Holdings | LuSE: ZCCM-IH / LSE: ZCC / Euronext Access Paris: MLZAM
Direct KCM exposure: Holds 20.6% of KCM. London trading was restored on 5 October 2026. Watch TLP2 financing, EPC effectiveness and the environmental investigation.
CopperTech Metals | Proposed NYSE: CUX, not yet listed
Pending-listing exposure: Intended vehicle for Vedanta's controlling KCM interest. Its proposed US IPO was postponed and no completed listing was identified in the reviewed record.
African Gold | Production, M&A and Development
Perseus Mining | ASX: PRU / TSX: PRU
Direct producing and development exposure: Operates Edikan, Sissingué and Yaouré and is developing Nyanzaga. Its balance sheet allows management to compare acquisitions against organic growth without a near-term reserve cliff.
PDI Gold | ASX: PDI / TSX: PDI
Second-order exposure: Owns a portfolio including Bankan in Guinea following the Predictive Discovery-Robex combination. Perseus holds a 9.4% interest.
Ghana | Gold and Mining Tenure
Galiano Gold | TSX: GAU / NYSE American: GAU
Direct producing exposure: Holds 90% of Asanko. Abirem and Miradani now extend through 2041 and 2043.
Gold Fields | JSE: GFI / NYSE: GFI
Direct producing exposure: Operates Tarkwa, where five leases expire in April 2027. Gold Fields no longer has equity, deferred-payment or royalty exposure to Asanko.
