The Manono Mine Stolen from AVZ

Who stole the mining licence from AVZ to line their own pockets with silver — and impoverished the Manono residents and condemned them to a life of slavery

Special report · September 2026

Sources and further reading

This site is a secondary compilation. Open the primary documents.

  1. Deboss AVZ MINERALS, “AVZ — MINING CAMP COLLINE,” YouTube, 12 February 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOgb2G6xXio — public film of the AVZ workers’ camp at Manono.
  2. AVZ Minerals ASX announcements, 21 April 2020 (DFS), 4 May 2022 (ministerial decree), 6 February 2023 (revocation), June 2023 (ICSID registration), and later ICC / ICSID updates including the half-year to 31 December 2024.
  3. ICSID Case No. ARB/23/20 and Procedural Order No. 3 (16 January 2024).
  4. ICC Case 27720, partial award 10 March 2025; related emergency orders of 2023.
  5. Jugement du TGI de Kalemie, 3 May 2023, as described in the ICC record and Cahiers du CERDHO (July 2024).
  6. Resource Matters, “Manono: nine red flags in the nascent lithium sector in the DRC,” and Cominière’s published reply.
  7. ZAM Magazine, “Sell Outs | Democratic Republic of the Congo,” August 2025.
  8. AfroNews24 on the US$20 million escrow extracts and the legal character of the US$70 million Zijin payment.
  9. Reuters, Mining-Technology, Copperbelt Katanga Mining, Mining Weekly — contemporaneous news on decrees, ICC, ICSID, KoBold and Zijin first concentrate.
  10. Official and biographical pages for Antoinette N’Samba Kalambayi and Guy Loando Mboyo confirming they were living office-holders after the decrees.
  11. CAMI forfeiture list, March 2026, PR 4029.
  12. Radio Okapi, 11 September 2026, “Retour au calme après une manifestation d’employés de Manono Lithium sur leurs conditions salariales”; AfroNews24, 11 September 2026, company communiqué on overtime and night premium.
  13. RAID / CAJJ, Workers’ rights briefing 2025 — physical abuse and low pay at several Chinese-operated DRC mines (not a Manono Lithium verdict). The Guardian, 8 November 2021, Tenke Fungurume (CMOC), not Manono.
  14. EcoNews RDC, 14 October 2024, “Avocat d’AVZI … se volatilise … avec 20 millions USD”; Mines.cd, 20 October 2024, Lukusa right of reply; AfroNews24, 7–8 June 2026, escrow / Rawbank series; 7sur7, 31 January 2025, Lukusa interview.
  15. AVZ DFS 21 April 2020 and later JORC updates: Mpiana-Mwanga HEPP, 120 kV line, electric fleet / hydrogen study, 5,000 ha plantation. Zijin / Mining Weekly / IntelliNews 2024–26 on the Katamba restart of Mpiana-Mwanga and first lithium exports.

Compiled September 2026. Generated illustrations are model-made. Public photographs retain source credit. Not legal advice. Not a publication of AVZ, Cominière, Zijin, KoBold, or the Government of the DRC.