What ICC and ICSID have in fact decided

International Chamber of Commerce

Emergency orders in 2023 told Célestin Kibeya Kabemba / Cominière SA not to take steps to explore or exploit PR 13359 and PR 15775. A partial award dated 10 March 2025 found that Célestin Kibeya Kabemba / Cominière SA breached those orders by extending title in its own name, splitting PR 13359, and steering PR 15775 to Zijin / Jinxiang / Manono Lithium SAS. The penalty was €39.1 million plus interest. A separate ICC track confirmed AVZI’s 2020 share-purchase agreement for 10 per cent of Dathcom against Cong Maohuai (“Simon Cong”) / Dathomir (award reported July 2025).

ICSID Case No. ARB/23/20

Registered 8 June 2023. Claimants: AVZ International (Australia), Green Lithium Holdings (Singapore), Dathcom (DRC). Respondent: the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Tribunal: Jan Paulsson, president; Salim Moollan; Mohamed Shelbaya. On 16 January 2024 interim orders required the state to reflect Dathcom as holder of PR 13359 on the south. AVZ says the state has not complied. Primary relief described in company reporting is title plus an order compelling the PE. A published quantum of “US$10 billion” does not appear in the docket extract reviewed here.

That is the precise support ICSID has given AVZ so far: jurisdiction accepted, and binding interim measures that treat Dathcom’s title as still alive. Non-compliance by a state, if the orders stand, is itself an internationally wrongful act. It is not yet a finding that “the mine was stolen,” and it is not yet a ten-billion-dollar award.