China Railway Contemplates Huge Grand-Kasai Copper Mine in DRC

On 7 May 2026, China Railway Resources Universal (CRRU) met with the Ministry of Mines of the Democratic Republic of Congo to discuss a new copper mining project in the Kasai-Oriental province. The project would be a joint venture between CRRU, a subsidiary of China Railway Group, and MIBA, a DRC’s state-owned mining company.

Minister Louis Kabamba assured the investors that the projects has the full support of the Presidency. In fact, President Felix Tshisekedi has instructed that the project be fast-tracked in order to bring about real mutual benefits.

The company plans to produce between 200,000 to 500,000 tonnes of copper annually. If the output reaches the upper end of this range, it would make it one of the largest copper mines in the world. China Railway also plans to beef up generation capacity from 250 to 500 MW, favoring renewable energy sources such as hydroelectric or photovoltaic sources, to power the copper smelter.

China Railway is already in the Sicomines consortium which produces about 250,000 tonnes of copper annually. The largest copper mine in DRC is the Tenke Fungurume mine operated by China Molybdenum, with an annual output of 520,000 tonnes per annum. The world’s largest copper mine is the Escondida Copper Mine in Chile, which produces one million tonnes of copper every year.

Whereas most copper mines in the Katanga region, this new mine is located in Kasai-Oriental, which is better known for diamond mining. It would not be surprising that diamond would be an important by-product of the copper mining.

At the moment, the project is still in the preliminary phase as no resource estimates, ore grade, or feasibility studies appear to be available. No project cost estimate was also disclosed, but such a large undertaking, we are talking about billions of dollars.