The shipment follows several previous shipments of copper to ports in Europe and the Far East since the Lobito Atlantic Railway took over the concession in January of this year.
LAR, a joint venture backed by global commodities trader Trafigura, Portuguese construction group Mota-Engil, and railway operator Vecturis, was granted a 30-year concession in 2022 to operate the 1,300-kilometer rail network.
The six-day rail journey demonstrated “the time-efficient western route to market that is now available for minerals and metals produced in the Congolese Copperbelt,” Trafigura said.
The Lobito corridor is seen as a key export route from mines in Congo and Zambia for minerals critical to the energy transition, including copper and cobalt.
The US and EU, under the Group of Seven’s Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment, are supporting the project as part of efforts to counter China’s dominance in the Central African Copperbelt.
This article was published by: MINING.COM Staff Writer
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