News

March 08, 2010

Elemental Minerals Could Be Sitting On A Company-Making Potash Deposit In Congo-Brazzaville

By Charles Wyatt

Before we get too deeply into the details of ASX-listed Elemental Minerals and its operations at the Sintoukola potash project in the Republic of Congo, one thing has to be made quite clear. The Republic of Congo is NOT the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Chalk and cheese, or as Garry Thomas, a director of Elemental, puts it, “the same sort of difference as there is between North and South Korea.” Even North Americans, who tend not be too hot on the geography of Africa, will understand that one. For the purposes of this article, therefore, we will refer to it as Congo-Brazzaville, which is the name often used for this country in any case. It’s one of the most urbanized in Africa, as 70 per cent of its total population live in the south west of the country, either in between Brazzaville, the capital, or in the major port of Pointe-Noire, or else along the railway connecting the two. The tropical forest in the north of the country is virtually uninhabited, and the wide river Congo separates Brazzaville from the near-land locked DRC to the east.

Congo Brazzaville’s economy is based primarily on its petroleum sector, which is by far the country's major revenue earner. In fact it is the fifth largest oil producer in sub-Saharan Africa, and enjoyed a gross revenue from oil of around US$12 billion in 2008. And the success of multi-national oil and gas companies in Congo-Brazzaville has encouraged others to invest in the country. It has a western level of infrastructure, and the literacy rate is one of the highest in Africa. Its big...