LONDON (Commodity Online): Congo is one of the copper giants in the world and certain taxes levied by the government for copper exports have been worrying the exporters for quite sometime. But, things are changing fast now.

Congo is now mulling changes in taxes levied on exports of semi processed copper and cobalt after appeals from business community which says illegal taxes are crippling sectors across the board.

Mining ventures owned by Freeport McMoRan, First Quantum, ENRC and several others have been paying millions of dollars to cover the new $60 per tonne tax introduced in April on unfinished copper and cobalt to encourage miners to add value to Congo's resources in country and export finished products.

Mining companies complained that many in the market require semi-finished products rather than finished products and that attempts to invest in Congo's value chain were hampered by 2 year mining contracts review as well as the world economic crisis.

The Katanga Province hosts the Central African Copperbelt, which extends from Angola through the DRC into Zambia. The Copperbelt is one of the world's greatest metallogenic provinces containing 34% of the world's cobalt reserves and over 10% of the world's copper reserves.

Copper declined on concern China's property market may slump further, reducing demand for the metal, after banks were ordered to conduct more stress tests to gauge the effect of a price drop of as much as 60 percent.

The metal for three-month delivery fell as much as 1 percent to $7,430 a metric ton on the London Metal Exchange, and traded at $7,441 in Shanghai.

China Zambia Angola Review