BHP Group PLC (LSE:BHP) is in talks to buy a copper project in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Bloomberg News reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
It is in early discussions with billionaire Robert Friedland’s Ivanhoe Mines Ltd to buy into Western Foreland, a vast exploration territory close to Ivanhoe’s Kamoa-Kakula mine.
BHP has operated mainly in more developed countries in recent years and a move into the resource-rich yet higher risk DRC would be quite a change for the world’s largest mining group.
The company sold its last mining asset in Africa - the rights to develop an iron ore deposit in Guinea - to Friedland in 2019, Bloomberg noted.
Ivanhoe announced the Makoko copper discovery on its Western Foreland exploration licences in October 2018. The Makoko discovery, Ivanhoe's third major copper discovery in the DRC, shows similar geological characteristics to the Kamoa and Kakula discoveries, it said.