Revealed: Glencore’s secret loan to secure DRC mining rights – by Ben Doherty and Oliver Zihlmann (The Guardian – November 5, 2017)

https://www.theguardian.com/

The world’s largest mining company, Glencore, secretly loaned tens of millions of dollars to an Israeli billionaire after it enlisted him to secure a controversial mining agreement in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Paradise Papers reveal.

The documents show in forensic detail how the mining magnate Dan Gertler held Glencore’s imprimatur as key negotiator with DRC authorities.

The Paradise Papers, a leaked cache of documents including more than 6m from within Appleby, one of the world’s leading and most secretive offshore law firms, lay bare the arcane multi-jurisdictional dealings of Glencore, a scandal-plagued Swiss multinational with mining interests across the globe, but particularly in Africa.

The documents confirm that in 2009, Glencore loaned Gertler $45m with the caveat that it would be repayable if agreement with DRC authorities was not reached to secure a mining contract for a company linked to Glencore.

Gertler’s notoriety in the resource-rich but conflict-riven and corrupt DRC spans nearly two decades. He was cited by a 2001 UN investigation that said he had given the DRC president, Joseph Kabila, $20m to buy weapons to equip his army against rebel groups in exchange for a monopoly on the country’s diamonds, and a 2013 Africa Progress Panel report said a string of mining deals struck by companies linked to him had deprived the country of more than $1.3bn in potential revenue.

For the rest of this article: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/nov/05/revealed-glencore-secret-loan-drc-mining-rights-paradise-papers