Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast Beyond the Mine

We sit down with Romain Battajon, a respected French lawyer with over two decades of expertise in business and mining law—practicing in Paris and Kinshasa, and co-founder of the ABLE Pan-African legal network. He held senior roles including ERG Africa’s General Counsel and currently chairs the Chamber of Mines’ Legal Commission.

Our wide-ranging conversation explores:

• Urgent reforms needed in DRC mining law, including harmonization with environmental, fiscal, and customs codes, and his views on a single regulatory authority.

• Battajon’s journey from Paris to Kinshasa, building legal expertise and shaping investment frameworks across Africa.

• Corporate governance and transparency challenges in the mining sector—insights on reducing administrative harassment and ensuring consistency across regulatory agencies.

• His vision for the future of Congolese mining law, in line with the global push toward sustainable and sovereign resource management.

Why You Should Listen

This episode provides a rare insider’s view of how legal structure shapes the mining investment climate in the DRC—and what steps are urgently needed to attract long-term, responsible capital.

Whether you're an investor, policymaker, legal professional, or simply interested in African resources, this conversation offers essential clarity on the legal backbone of Africa’s mining transition.

Hosted by Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

Join the conversation with Joachim Nzuzi, a key executive at ERG Africa, where he provides a deep dive into the company’s flagship operations in the DRC and their long‑term industrial vision.

In this episode, we unpack:

• Frontier Mine: ERG’s cornerstone copper operation near the Zambia border, producing up to 370,000 t/year sulfur concentrate, with ongoing expansion to extend its lifespan via Cut‑3 and future Cut‑4 phases.

• Metalkol RTR: One of the world’s largest cobalt producers and a major copper generator—an innovative tailings reprocessing project that closes the loop on legacy waste while meeting global.

• ESG & Local Development: How ERG embeds international frameworks—Clean Cobalt & Copper standards, OECD, CopperMark—into site-level practice including community investments, training, and formal cahiers de charge for Lualaba’s.

• Long-term DRC Commitment: Joachim discusses ERG’s multi-billion-dollar investment, local capacity-building, supplier development, youth training via Dilala Centre, and alignment with national industrial goals.

  
  

Why It Matters

This candid conversation reveals how ERG Africa positions itself not just as a resource extractor, but as a strategic partner in the DRC’s industrial transformation. Whether you're an industry stakeholder, policymaker, or sustainability analyst, you'll gain actionable insights on:

• Mining operational strategy in critical minerals

• ESG execution at scale

• Community-first industrial models

• African battery metals’ geopolitics and sovereignty

Hosted by Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.