Kinshasa — The state mining company of the Democratic Republic of the Congo received $100m as part of a settlement to drop its objections to the sale of the country’s biggest copper mine to Chinese buyers, according to people with knowledge of the agreement. The cash payment was made in January after state-owned Gecamines agreed to abandon legal cases to block the sale of Freeport McMoRan and Lundin Mining’s interests in the Tenke Fungurume mine, the people said, asking not be identified as terms of the arrangement were not public. China Molybdenum and Chinese private equity firm BHR Partners bought the stakes for a combined $3.8bn. The settlement marks the end of a nine-month dispute between Freeport, Lundin, the Chinese buyers and Gecamines over whether the sales, which were a transfer of ownership in an offshore holding company, should have been subject to preemption or approval by the state-owned miner. Gecamines owns 20% of local operating unit Tenke Fungurume Mining. Gecamines...
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