Congo tax authorities seal Glencore's Kamoto Copper offices

Congolese tax authorities have sealed the offices of Kamoto Copper Company, a Glencore-owned mining firm, in a deepening dispute over payments the state says it is owed.

The DGI tax agency shut the Kolwezi offices after settlement talks failed to resolve the dispute. Production at Kamoto's mines and processing plants was not affected, though the closure of the administrative offices disrupted day-to-day corporate functions at one of the DRC's largest copper producers. The tax authority claims Glencore's Congolese unit owes billions of dollars; a Glencore spokesperson said the group disputes the DGI's claims and remained in discussions with the authorities.

High stakes for both sides

Congo ranks as the world's second-largest copper producer and the top source of cobalt, with Kamoto among its biggest producers of both metals. Copper prices had climbed more than 40% the previous year and continued rising in 2026, driven by demand tied to artificial intelligence and the clean-energy transition — a backdrop that gave Kinshasa added confidence to press tax claims against foreign operators enjoying historically strong margins. Glencore owns 70% of Kamoto, which produced roughly 190,000 tonnes of copper the previous year against a target of 300,000 tonnes annually.

A pattern of leverage

The tax raid came only months after Glencore and Gécamines had struck a land-access agreement intended to unlock Kamoto's growth, and after Orion CMC, backed by the US International Development Finance Corporation, had agreed in February to a proposed transaction involving Glencore's Congolese assets. Taken together, the episodes illustrated how the DRC government was willing to use every commercial and regulatory lever available — land titles, marketing rights and now tax enforcement — to extract greater value from foreign-operated mines, even as it simultaneously negotiated expansion deals with the same companies. Foreign miners operating in Katanga have long had to budget for this kind of periodic renegotiation, but the scale of the amount in dispute, running into the billions of dollars, made this episode more consequential than the routine tax disputes that periodically flare up across the copperbelt.

Sources

• Miningmx: Congo tax raid hits Glencore copper unit, 13 Jul 2026

Photo: A copper mine in Kolwezi, home to Glencore's Kamoto Copper Company operations. Rob Mieremet / Anefo, Wikimedia Commons, CC0.