KEY POINTS
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Trafigura-led consortium aims to finalise US loan deal.
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Financing will upgrade Angola’s 1,300-km Lobito rail corridor.
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Railway to double copper and cobalt exports by 2026.
Lobito Atlantic Railway (LAR), the Trafigura-led consortium operating Angola’s strategic rail corridor, is close to securing a $533 million loan from the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, according to its chief executive.
The financing—pledged last year—is expected to be finalised before the end of 2025 and will fund the overhaul of 1,300 kilometres (800 miles) of railway, providing a faster route to move critical minerals like copper and cobalt from the Democratic Republic of Congo to the Atlantic coast. The project is central to U.S. and European efforts to diversify supply chains for energy transition metals.
Trafigura-led consortium aims to finalise US loan deal
Nicholas Fournier, who was recently appointed CEO of LAR, said negotiations were in the final stages. “There is an army of lawyers on both sides discussing the last comma and everything, so it’s going in the direction,” he said. “We’re hoping to have this completed before the end of the year.”
He dismissed speculation that shifting U.S. political winds under President Donald Trump could derail the financing, stressing that the deal is “a commercial transaction” rather than a geopolitical contest.
Angola awarded the consortium—comprising Trafigura, Portuguese construction firm Mota-Engil, and Belgian rail operator Vecturis SA—a 30-year concession in 2022 to modernize and operate the Lobito line.
Loan deal to boost mineral exports from Lobito
The rail corridor is expected to play a pivotal role in transporting copper and cobalt, two minerals essential to batteries and clean energy technology. LAR already moves these commodities from Congo to Lobito port, while also carrying sulfur, agricultural products, and industrial goods.
According to Reuters, Fournier said cargo volumes will double once the line’s upgrades are complete, with a target of handling 40,000 tons per month in each direction by 2026, scaling up to 1.5 million tons annually later this decade.
The consortium has already committed $555 million of its own investment into the project, underscoring its importance for Angola’s infrastructure ambitions and the global race to secure reliable access to critical minerals.
