DRC Grants Mota-Engil 30-Year Concession for Lobito Corridor Copper Railway

President Félix Tshisekedi and visiting Angolan President João Lourenço presided over the signing in Kinshasa of a 30-year concession granting Portugal's Mota-Engil the rehabilitation, modernization and operation of the roughly 1,000km Dilolo-Sakania railway, which links DRC's Lualaba and Haut-Katanga copperbelt mining hubs to Angola's Atlantic port of Lobito via the Congolese section of the US-backed Lobito Corridor. Total investment over the concession period is expected to reach $1.8 billion, potentially backed by up to $1 billion in financing from the US International Development Finance Corporation; authorities project the upgraded line could eventually handle up to 13.7 million tonnes of freight annually. The deal is one of the largest concrete outcomes to date of the Trump administration's minerals-for-investment push in the DRC, running on a parallel track to the Washington Accords security framework.