The European Investment Bank invests in major mining projects
A € 215 million loan goes to Ambatovy Minerals SA and Dynatec Madagascar SA for a nickel and cobalt extraction and processing project in Madagascar. It includes the construction of a mine some 80 km to the East of the Malagasy capital, Antanarivo, the construction of a large hydro-metallurgical processing plant at 11 km from Toamasina harbour and of a 220 km pipeline to bring mineral sludges from the mine to the plant.
The total cost of the project is put at US $ 3.8 billion. Shareholders include Canada’s Sheritt International, Japan’s Sumimoto and Korea Resources alongside Canada’s SNC-Lavalin corporation. The Japanese Bank for International Cooperation, the African Development Bank, the Export-Import Bank of Korea, the Export Development Bank of Canada and several European commercial banks are also putting up finance for the project alongside the EIB to the tune of US $ 2.1 billion. With an expected annual output of 60,000 tons of nickel and 5,600 tons of nickel, this project is one of the World’s largest for both these minerals and it is also Madagascar’s principal project envisaged by the country’s 2007-2012 Action Plan.
The EIB has also extended a € 100 m loan to the Tenke Mining Corporation for the development of the Tenke Fungurume Mining project in Katanga (Democratic Republic of Congo).The EIB’s contribution represents about one tenth of the total investment put at € 1 b for the development of this project which is also one of the world’s largest, with a total projected annual output of 115,000 tons of copper cathods and 8,000 tons of cobalt.
The EIB stresses that the report of the UN Commission of enquiry on the illegal exploitation of the DRC’s natural resources have cleared the companies which are part to this project, of any malpractice in the sector.
Although the EIB claims a commitment to protection of the, “remarkable biodiversity of Madagascar” and despite the fact that environmental and social impact studies has been carried out on both projects, some European NGOs are urging the Bank to adopt the best environmental and social standards and also to finance projects which are specifically poverty focused and to improve the transparency of its operations.
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