Katanga Mining Announces Lifting of Customs Restrictions and Resumption of Imports And Exports
November 16, 2018
ZUG, SWITZERLAND, November 16, 2018 – Katanga Mining Limited (TSX: KAT) ("Katanga" or the "Company") today announces that the previously disclosed internal instruction of the Direction Générale des Douanes et Accises ("DGDA") in the Democratic Republic of the Congo temporarily preventing the Company's 75% owned subsidiary, Kamoto Copper Company SA ("KCC"), from importing or exporting any material or production has been lifted and that imports and exports of material and production have resumed. As previously disclosed, the DGDA issued an internal instruction on November 9, 2018, temporarily preventing the KCC from importing or exporting any material or production, including copper production, as a result of KCC's alleged failure to declare and pay duties on the export of at least 6,650 tons of copper in December 2014 and January 2015.
The dispute with the DGDA arose as a result of the Company's previously disclosed overstatement of copper cathode production by 6,650 tonnes in December, 2014. This overstated cathode production was provisionally invoiced in the amount of $43 million on December 31, 2014. However, as disclosed in the Company's restated consolidated financial statements for the years ended December 31, 2016 and 2015, the overstated cathode production and the provisional invoicing of $43 million were eliminated from the restated financial statements.
Although the 6,650 tonnes of copper cathode at issue were not produced by KCC in 2014 or exported in 2015, the DGDA continues to claim that KCC failed to pay export duties on the export of these copper lots. Although the temporary suspension of imports and exports has been lifted, the DGDA is proposing to levy export duties and penalties on KCC. The validity and quantum of the DGDA's proposed export duties and penalties remains in dispute. Given that the copper cathode production at issue did not exist and that the copper lots were not exported, KCC intends to continue vigorously contesting any export duties or penalties on the overstated (not produced and not sold) copper cathodes.