KINSHASA: The Democratic Republic of Congo’s state miner has started selling its share of copper from joint-venture (JV) projects for the first time as the country seeks greater control over a metal key to the energy transition.

Gecamines holds minority stakes in large mines run by firms such as China’s CMOC Group and Glencore Plc. Until now, the JVs themselves have sold all the production.

But the state company is taking a more active role in marketing its portion - totalling hundreds of thousands of tonnes a year - according to people familiar with the matter.

Gecamines is offering copper from CMOC’s giant Tenke Fungurume mine, in which it holds a 20% interest, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing private negotiations.

The state miner is assessing bids - including from Glencore, Trafigura Group and Mercuria Energy Group - for 90,000 tonnes from the project, two of the people said.

The three trading houses declined to comment, while the Tenke JV and Gecamines didn’t respond.

Gecamines’ move creates opportunities for traders to bid on sizeable new contracts at a time of heated competition for copper deals.

Congo has recently become the world’s No. 2 producer and has seen exports almost triple since 2016. Yet many expect global demand - led by growth in electric vehicles, grid infrastructure and data centres - to outstrip investment in new supplies.

Gecamines also held a smaller tender earlier this year, with CMOC metals trader IXM buying copper from the Kambove mine, according to the people. Kambove is a JV between the Congolese state and China Nonferrous Metal Mining Group.

IXM didn’t respond to questions about the Kambove tender.

Gecamines plans to run similar processes for its share of copper from Glencore’s Kamoto operation and the Chinese-owned Sicomines project, one of the people said. Together, those two assets produced more than 400,000 tonnes of the metal last year.

By organising the tenders, Gecamines hopes to gain more insight into whether its partners - some of which are both miners and traders - are selling their larger portions at the best possible price, two of the people said.

 - Bloomberg