Explore every episode of the 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.

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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

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