Power-starved DRC mining firms turn to imports, renewables
Excavators and drillers at work in an open pit at Tenke Fungurume, a copper and cobalt mine 110 km northwest of Lubumbashi in Congo's copper-producing south in a picture taken on January 29, 2013. PHOTO | REUTERS
Mining firms in the Democratic Republic of Congo have been forced to import electricity from as far afield as Kenya and Ethiopia amid a biting supply, ironic for a country that could potentially power most of Africa were its hydropower capacity harnessed.
Yet electricity supply in the DRC has been a real headache for years, with the mining sector experiencing a deficit of between 500MW and 1,000MW, according to figures from the Chamber of Mines, a body of the Congo Business Federation (FEC).
