Kinshasa — The Democratic Republic of Congo’s state mining company 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 last month after state-owned Gécamines 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 aren’t 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 Gécamines over whether the sales, which were a transfer of ownership in an offshore holding company, should have been subject to pre-emption or approval by the state-owned miner. Gécamines owns 20% of local operating unit Tenke Fungurume Mining. Gécamines has recei...
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