The job of Congo’s Centre d’Evaluation, d’Expertise et de Certification (CEEC) and its director, Léonide Mupepele, is to certify the value of metals produced, and so to ensure that the state gets its dues in taxes and charges. The vexing question is the value of the ‘bonus’ minerals. Katanga’s cobalt, for example, may contain tiny amounts of gold, germanium, silver, platinum and palladium. The mining giant Union Minière used to extract the bonus minerals at its plant at Hoboken in Belgium and paid several millions of dollars for the privilege to its Congolese partner, the state-owned Gécamines.
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