Pensana Could Be an Indirect Beneficiary of the Democratic Republic of the Congo's New Railway

According to African Initiative, on August 27 the government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo awarded Mota-Engil Africa a 30-year concession for the Dilolo–Sakania railway. The approximately $1.25 billion project includes the rehabilitation, modernization, expansion, operation, and maintenance of a nearly 1,000-kilometer railway that will become a key component of the Lobito Corridor, linking the Central African Copperbelt with Angola's Atlantic coast.

Once upgraded, the railway will connect the DRC's major mining centers—including Kolwezi, Tenke, and Lubumbashi—to Angola's Benguela Railway and the Port of Lobito, providing a faster and more diversified export route for critical minerals. While the project's primary objective is to improve exports of copper and cobalt, the continued development of the Lobito Corridor also enhances the strategic importance of the region's transport infrastructure for other mining projects.

Implications for Pensana

Pensana plc is developing the Longonjo rare earth project in Angola, one of the world's largest undeveloped deposits of magnet rare earth elements, particularly neodymium and praseodymium (NdPr).

The project is located approximately 6 kilometers from the Benguela Railway, with concentrate planned to be exported through the Port of Lobito. Although the Dilolo–Sakania railway is located in the DRC and does not directly affect the economics of Longonjo, the continued expansion of the Lobito Corridor strengthens the regional export infrastructure supporting long-term mining projects that rely on this route.

Primary Beneficiaries

The railway's most immediate beneficiaries are expected to be copper and cobalt producers already operating in the Central African Copperbelt.

Among the companies best positioned to benefit are:

• Ivanhoe Mines— operator of the Kamoa-Kakula copper complex.
• CMOC Group— owner of the Tenke Fungurume and Kisanfu mines.
• Glencore — through Kamoto Copper Company and Mutanda Mining.
• Eurasian Resources Group (ERG)— operator of the Metalkol RTR project.

Andrievskii Verdict

For Pensana, this project has strategic significance. It does not alter the fundamental economics of the Longonjo project, but it reinforces the continued development of the Lobito Corridor—the export infrastructure around which the project's logistics strategy was originally designed. As the corridor continues to develop, long-term infrastructure risks are likely to decline, strengthening one of the key pillars of Pensana's investment case.

At the same time, the project's primary economic benefits are expected to accrue to established copper and cobalt producers already using the Lobito Corridor to export their production.

Bottom line

While the railway is not a standalone catalyst for Pensana, it reinforces one of the company's key competitive advantages—access to a strategically important and continuously improving export corridor.

Aleksei Andrievskii | Advisory Board Member, Bendura Bank AG | Liechtenstein