DRC Regulator Orders Glencore’s KCC and Mutanda to Terminate Contracts with Non-Compliant Subcontractors

According to a decision published by the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Regulatory Authority for Subcontracting in the Private Sector (ARSP) on September 15, Glencore’s Kamoto Copper Company (KCC) and Mutanda Mining (MUMI) have been ordered to terminate existing contracts with subcontractors that do not meet local legal eligibility requirements and remove them from their supplier lists.

The decision followed a regulatory review of the two companies’ suppliers and service providers. Of the 1,427 suppliers and service providers submitted by KCC, only 472 were registered by ARSP as eligible, while 955 failed to meet the required conditions. At Mutanda, 548 of the 1,133 submitted suppliers were deemed eligible, while 585 failed to qualify.

Both companies are also required to submit remediation plans to ARSP within 30 days of receiving the notice and are prohibited from signing new subcontracting agreements with the affected companies until they achieve compliance.

KCC and Mutanda are both major copper-cobalt assets in the DRC. Continued enforcement of the measures could increase supply-chain adjustment and compliance-management pressures for the two operations.

The original source is ARSP’s official Decision No. 020/ARSP/DG/2026, dated September 11 and publicly released on September 15.

For publication, retaining “KCC and Mutanda” in the headline would make the direct connection to Glencore’s key copper-cobalt assets in the DRC immediately clear to cobalt-market readers.