The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has signed a 30-year concession with Portuguese construction group Mota-Engil to rehabilitate and operate a strategic railway through its copper and cobalt heartland, moving a major US-backed component of the Lobito Corridor closer to execution.
The agreement, signed in Kinshasa on August 26, covers the 1,004.5-kilometre Dilolo-Sakania railway and envisages investment of nearly $1.258bn. Separately, US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) has said the project may seek up to $1bn in financing following a full review.
The distinction is important: the $1.258bn is the indicative project investment announced by President Félix Tshisekedi, while the $1bn represents potential DFC financing rather than a completed US funding commitment.
Deal moves into execution
The concession marks a significant advance from December 2025, when the DFC announced a letter of interest supporting Mota-Engil’s proposed rehabilitation, operation and eventual transfer of the railway.
Africa Briefing reported at the time that Washington was positioning the Congolese railway alongside deeper US access to copper, cobalt and other critical minerals as it sought to reduce dependence on China-dominated supply chains.
Congolese state news agency ACP confirmed that the concession was signed. Tshisekedi said the line would run from Dilolo to Sakania through Kolwezi, Tenke and Lubumbashi, placing some of the country’s most important mining, industrial and agricultural centres directly on the route.
The agreement shifts the project from a proposed financing and infrastructure initiative towards a long-term operating arrangement at the heart of Washington’s broader effort to strengthen alternative supply chains for African critical minerals.
Kinshasa sets terms
Under the agreement, the concessionaire will take responsibility for financing, rehabilitating, modernising, operating and maintaining the railway before transferring the infrastructure to the Congolese state at the end of the operating period.
Tshisekedi said the financing and traffic risks would be borne by the concessionaire, without a sovereign guarantee, operating subsidy or minimum revenue guarantee from the government.
The DRC will hold at least a 10 percent stake in the project company and receive a concession fee equivalent to 7.5 percent of annual gross turnover, according to the terms outlined by Tshisekedi.
The president also said the agreement would not privatise state railway company SNCC or create a railway monopoly. SNCC is expected to retain exclusive passenger transport rights while continuing to carry freight.
Lobito gains strategic weight
The Dilolo-Sakania line is important because it connects the DRC’s mineral belt with Angola’s Atlantic-facing Lobito Corridor, creating another route for exports to international markets.
The corridor is already moving Congolese metal westwards. Africa Briefing reported in June that copper anodes from Ivanhoe Mines’ Kamoa-Kakula complex had reached Belgium through the Lobito route.
Washington has also backed the Angolan section. In December 2025, the DFC signed a loan agreement of up to $553m for the Lobito Atlantic Railway, a development Africa Briefing reported as a major expansion of US support for the corridor.
US-China rivalry deepens
The project gives Washington greater infrastructure exposure in a region where Chinese companies remain dominant in copper and cobalt mining.
The competition extends beyond the DRC. Chinese companies are advancing a $1.4bn rehabilitation of the TAZARA railway linking Zambia’s Copperbelt with the Tanzanian port of Dar es Salaam, underscoring the wider US-China contest over Africa’s critical-minerals infrastructure.
For Kinshasa, however, the long-term test is whether the railway becomes more than an export channel. Tshisekedi said the government wants a corridor that also supports agriculture, industrial inputs, local processing, jobs and wider economic diversification.
Credit: Africa Briefing
