Mota-Engil is set to sign a 30-year concession with the Democratic Republic of Congo to operate a key copper and cobalt railway, potentially backed with up to $1-billion of US financing.
The deal with Portugal’s biggest construction company covers the rehabilitation and management of the Congolese portion of the Lobito Corridor, an infrastructure project that aims to increase exports of critical minerals to Western markets, according to people familiar with the matter. Mota-Engil is already part of the consortium operating a connecting rail line in neighbouring Angola that runs to a port on the Atlantic Ocean coast.
Congo’s government and Mota-Engil are due to sign an agreement on Wednesday in the African nation’s capital, Kinshasa, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing matters that aren’t yet public. The contract will run for three decades, some of the people said.
A representative for Mota-Engil declined to comment. A spokesperson for Congo’s presidency didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Minutes of a Congolese ministerial meeting held last month revealed that the parties were working on a public-private partnership intended to revive the dilapidated 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) railway, which passes through the mining hubs of Kolwezi, Tenke and Lubumbashi, Bloomberg News previously reported.
