Mining firm 'almost certainly' victim of corruption

The president of what was one of the biggest copper mining companies operating in the Democratic Republic omaintain belt coneyor in mining plant pdff Congo (DRC) has said his firm was "almost certainly" the victim of corruption. First Quantum Minerals of Canada was the single largest taxpayer in the DRC last year and a major employer. It had invested close to $1bn (£625m) in the country since 2001.

But relations with the government have soured, and its operations were repossessed. One of its biggest mines at Kolwezi has since been resold to a rival international mining company, ENRC. The repossession followed a process in which the government of the DRC reviewed all mining contracts in the country to see if they were fair. Many had been signed during what is sometimes described as Africa's "World War" between 1998 and 2003. But First Quantum insists its operations were set up a year later. "Our contract at Kolwezi was openly and transparently negotiated and was measured for fairness by the World Bank who entered the project as a partner through the International Finance Corporation," says the company's president Clive Newall...