Mining Local-Shareholding Rules Advance Through Decree Talks

Kinshasa, August 4, 2026 - The Mines Ministry and the Federation of Enterprises of Congo's Chamber of Mines agreed to prepare a draft decree clarifying how local-shareholding rules in the Mining Code and Mining Regulation should be implemented.

The talks concern Article 71 bis of the Mining Code and Article 144 bis of the Mining Regulation, following a January 30 ministry letter that set a July 31 compliance deadline for mining companies. A joint commission is expected to submit areas of agreement and disagreement to the mines minister.

In a related legislative track, MP Kasanda Katuala Olivier has proposed rules to operationalize the obligation for mining firms to cede 10% of capital to Congolese nationals, with 5% reserved for workers and 5% for other Congolese nationals. The worker share would be held through a cooperative financed by interest-free credit repaid from dividends.

The bill also proposes objective criteria and a public beneficial-owner register for non-employee nationals, as well as replacing automatic license withdrawal with graduated warnings, fines and suspension of tax benefits. For investors, the issue is central to ownership structure, compliance risk and future licensing stability in the DRC mining sector.