AVZ Minerals Future: Manono Dispute, Zijin, KoBold

As of 16 October 2026, AVZ Minerals has no mine and no stock-exchange listing. It was removed from the ASX official list on 13 May 2024 (ASX market announcement, 13 May 2024), and it is now an unlisted company that is arbitrating its claim to the Manono lithium and tin project in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Its ICSID case against the DRC has resumed, and the ICC hearing in the Dathcom joint venture disputes with Cominière is set for 24-28 May 2027 (AVZ update, 29 September 2026). Meanwhile Zijin Mining began producing at Manono in May 2026 (Zijin interim report, August 2026). So the future of AVZ depends on a legal award or a negotiated settlement, not on building a mine.

This page gives the dated status, the legal tracks in plain words, the resource figures, a lithium output chart, a royalty calculator and a short checklist for consultants who must assess a disputed licence. It also covers the Zijin side of the story, because the question behind both names is the same: who controls Manono. Tin and iron are covered too, because AVZ’s own data show no iron product.

AVZ Minerals at a glance

The table lists the main facts with the source and date. Interests are the company’s own claims, and parts of them are disputed.

How AVZ lost control of Manono: a timeline

AVZ’s own announcements give most of the dates below. Where the DRC or Zijin sees an event differently, the text says so. A permit here means the licence that lets a company explore (PR) or mine (PE).

• 2016-2017. PR 13359 was granted on 28 December 2016 and moved from Cominière to Dathcom the next day. The Dathcom joint venture agreement is dated 27 January 2017 (AVZ, January 2024; AVZ, September 2026).
• May 2021. Dathcom applied to convert PR 13359 into an exploitation permit.
• 11 May 2022. AVZ shares were suspended from quotation on the ASX and never resumed.
• 2023. The DRC mines ministry revoked part of AVZ’s permit and gave the rights to a Zijin subsidiary, citing slow progress (Mining.com, July 2025). AVZ says Cominière ended the joint venture, took PR 13359 back and released the northern part, where Manono Lithium SA then received PR 15775. AVZ started ICSID proceedings on 8 May 2023.
• 16 January 2024. The ICSID tribunal issued interim orders in AVZ’s favour. AVZ said the DRC did not comply.
• 13 May 2024. AVZ left the ASX.
• 14 March 2025. AVZ announced an ICC decision to liquidate an accrued penalty of EUR 39 million against Cominière (AVZ arbitration page).
• May-July 2025. KoBold Metals and AVZ announced a framework for a possible sale of AVZ’s interest. Weeks later the DRC signed its own preliminary deal with KoBold, which AVZ said broke the ICSID orders (details below).
• 2 July 2025. An ICC tribunal found that AVZ legally acquired 10% of Dathcom from Dathomir, with effect from 13 August 2021.
• 19 November 2025 to April 2026. AVZ obtained suspensions of the ICSID case to allow funding and settlement talks. A further three-month suspension came with Procedural Order No. 7 on 23 April 2026, and the interim orders were lifted (AVZ, 29 April 2026).
• 29 September 2026. AVZ reported that the ICSID and ICC suspensions had been lifted and the cases were progressing.

Where the legal fights stand

There is not one case but several. AVZ’s 29 September 2026 update lists them, and the notes below paraphrase it. Two terms first: ICSID is the arbitration centre of the World Bank Group that hears investor claims against states, and the ICC is the International Chamber of Commerce court of arbitration that hears disputes between companies.

• ICSID, AVZ against the DRC. AVZ’s subsidiaries and Dathcom say the DRC failed to grant Dathcom an exploitation permit over PR 13359. The DRC is pursuing an amended request for security for costs, and AVZ has asked for new provisional measures to preserve the status quo. No merits timetable has been finalised.
• ICC, the Dathcom joint venture. One case was brought by AVZ against Cominière. Another was brought against AVZ by Cominière and Jin Cheng Mining, a Zijin subsidiary. Written submissions run from October 2026 to April 2027, with a hearing on 24-28 May 2027.
• ICC, Dathomir shares. AVZ won the first case, on a 10% stake. The second, on a 5% stake, is waiting for a new procedural calendar.
• Paris Court of Appeal. Jin Cheng lost its ICC case against AVZ and has asked the court to annul that decision. No calendar is set.
• ASIC proceedings in Australia. The securities regulator is pursuing AVZ and some directors over past disclosures. AVZ says its funding agreement does not cover this defence (AVZ, 29 September 2026).

Two wins matter, but neither returns the mine. The EUR 39 million penalty and the Dathomir share ruling narrow the disputes. Money still has to be collected, and an award on shares does not restore a permit. A tribunal also ruled that it had no power to impose the financial penalty AVZ asked for against the DRC for ignoring the 2024 interim orders (AVZ, 29 April 2026).

AVZ also has a funding link with its cornerstone investor, Suzhou CATH Energy Technologies. In January 2026 it said it had received the balance of funds under the pre-completion funding agreement and that the end date for the conditions of its transaction agreement was extended to 31 December 2029 (AVZ, 15 January 2026). In September 2026 it also confirmed the surrender of two regional licences, PR 4029 and PR 4030, to concentrate its resources on the arbitrations.

Why Manono matters for lithium supply

The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that batteries account for 88% of world lithium use (USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026). The same survey puts the DRC at about 3 million tonnes of measured and indicated lithium resources, a small share of the roughly 150 million tonnes of measured and indicated resources it lists worldwide. The chart shows the largest national totals. Resources are the amounts that may one day be mined; reserves are the part that is economic today, so the two should not be compared.

Chart

Lithium resources by country

Million tonnes of lithium, measured and indicated; selected countries

Manono is important for another reason: grade. A researcher at the Institute of Development Studies calls it one of the largest and highest-grade undeveloped lithium deposits in the world, and notes that 2026 is the first year the DRC has produced lithium (IDS, 7 August 2026). For more on how pegmatite, brine and clay deposits differ, see our guide to lithium deposit types, and for other African projects see lithium in Mali, Zimbabwe and Ghana.

▶ Background on the DRC’s copper wealth and the Central African Copperbelt, the wider mining region around Manono. · 13:34

What is in the ground at Manono: lithium, tin and iron

Manono sits in the Kibaran belt of southern DRC. The rock is pegmatite: a coarse igneous rock that can hold lithium, tin and tantalum. The lithium mineral is spodumene. The old Manono mine worked tin from 1919 to 1982 and made 185,000 tonnes of cassiterite concentrate, according to AVZ’s earlier project page (AVZ, Manono project page). Cassiterite is the main tin ore.

Chart

World tin mine production, 2025 estimate

Thousand tonnes of contained tin, top eight producers

In January 2024, AVZ reported a mineral resource for its two main deposits, Roche Dure and Carriere de l’Este. A mineral resource is an estimate of rock that could be mined; it is not a proven reserve. In the AVZ announcement:

• The whole project holds 842 million tonnes at 1.61% Li2O, 709 ppm tin and 37 ppm tantalum, with 13.52 million tonnes of contained lithium oxide. Li2O is lithium oxide, the standard way to state spodumene grade, and ppm means parts per million.
• Roche Dure holds 669 million tonnes at 1.61% Li2O and 690 ppm tin.
• The measured and indicated part of Roche Dure, which is the better-proven category, is 500 million tonnes at 1.63% Li2O and 755 ppm tin, containing 377,000 tonnes of tin.

(AVZ, 31 January 2024.) These are AVZ’s figures, estimated by CSA Global for the company. The permit dispute means AVZ cannot currently drill or sample the ground to update them.

What about iron? Iron is sometimes named as a Manono product. AVZ’s announcement says otherwise: it estimated iron oxide (Fe2O3) at an average of 1.01% as a potentially deleterious element, meaning a contaminant the plant must manage. Manono is not an iron ore project, and no figures for iron tonnage have been published by AVZ.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo already mines tin elsewhere. USGS estimates 27,000 tonnes of tin mined in the DRC in 2025, fifth in the world, and puts its tin reserves at 91,000 tonnes (USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026, tin). USGS does not say how much of that comes from Manono. For the geology of tin deposits, read our guide to tin exploration, and for spodumene pegmatites and their by-products see pegmatite gemstones and lithium uses.

Who is producing lithium at Manono now

Zijin Mining, a Chinese company listed in Hong Kong and Shanghai, operates the Manono Lithium venture with Cominière. AVZ describes the venture’s permit as covering the northern part of the project area. Its interim report for the six months to 30 June 2026 states that the dense media separation plant started production in May 2026, about one month ahead of schedule. Dense media separation is a process that uses a heavy liquid to separate spodumene from waste rock. The report lists the project at US$1.405 billion and 130 thousand tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) a year, and says a smelting plant is aimed to start by the end of 2026 (Zijin interim report, August 2026).

Chart

Zijin mined lithium output by site, first half of 2026

Thousand tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE), six months to 30 June 2026

Zijin’s subsidiary Jinxiang Lithium holds 54.9% of Manono Lithium, Cominière 35.1% and the DRC state 10% (Zijin, Manono Northeast project page). In the first half of 2026 the mine produced 5,379 tonnes of LCE, of which 2,953 tonnes is attributable to Zijin. The same report gives the average China price of lithium carbonate as RMB 163,427 per tonne in the first half of 2026, against RMB 70,399 a year earlier. The chart compares Manono with Zijin’s other lithium sites. Mining processes like these are compared in our review of mining technologies.

AVZ does not accept Zijin’s rights. Its September 2026 update names Jin Cheng Mining, a Zijin subsidiary, as a party in the ICC and Paris cases. AVZ calls void the sale of a 15% stake in Dathcom by Cominière to Jin Cheng, because it says the sale broke its pre-emptive right. The facts are for the tribunals to decide.

What the royalty change means for a plant of Manono’s size

A royalty is a payment to the state on sales, whether or not the mine makes a profit. The DRC cabinet adopted a draft decree adding lithium to the strategic minerals list just before Manono started, which raises the royalty rate from 3.5% to 10% (reported by IDS and Ecofin) (IDS, 7 August 2026; Ecofin Agency, 1 June 2026). The 2018 Mining Code sets a 10% royalty for strategic substances and 3.5% for non-ferrous and base metals, charged on the gross commercial value of the product when it leaves the mine or processing plant (Articles 240 and 241, Journal officiel, 28 March 2018). The calculator below shows the extra royalty a plant of a given size would pay. It uses the capacity Zijin states for the project. The plant produced far less than that in the first half of 2026, so full capacity is a ceiling, not a forecast.

KoBold Metals and the US push into Manono

KoBold Metals is a California-based exploration company that uses data and artificial intelligence to choose drill targets. On 7 May 2025 it announced a framework with AVZ for KoBold to buy AVZ’s interests in Manono (KoBold Metals, 7 May 2025). Reuters reported that the deal would let KoBold invest more than US$1 billion to bring Manono lithium to Western markets (Reuters via Yahoo Finance, 8 May 2025).

It did not become a completed sale. In July 2025 the DRC announced its own preliminary deal with KoBold to develop the southern part of Manono, and AVZ said that deal broke the ICSID orders (Mining.com, July 2025). In November 2025 AVZ said the framework had not produced a proposal it could consider, and that it was not bound by any exclusivity with KoBold or any other party (AVZ, 19 November 2025). On 13 April 2026 KoBold launched a US$50 million exploration campaign over 13 permits in Manono territory, with US$20 million already spent to acquire the permits (Ecofin Agency, April 2026). It is exploration, not production. For how exploration targets are chosen from imagery and data, see our note on mining industry trends and tools.

The IDS paper adds that White House officials reportedly urged AVZ in January 2026 to sell to KoBold. AVZ’s own September 2026 update says only that engagement with stakeholders continues but is slow because of the geopolitical complexity.

▶ Explains how AI is used in mineral exploration, what it does well and where it fails. · 4:37

Tin at Manono: the other half of the story

Tin is why Manono was first mined, and it is still reported in the project’s resource. USGS lists the main US uses of tin as chemicals (25%), tinplate (16%), alloys (12%) and solder (11%). World mine output was about 290,000 tonnes (2025 estimate), and the price has been volatile. The chart shows the annual average from the World Bank. It rose about 89% from 2020 to 2021 (US$17,125 to US$32,384 a tonne), dipped in 2023 and was highest in 2025 within the series shown.

Chart

Annual average tin price

US$ per tonne, nominal

In AVZ’s resource statement the pegmatite carries 709 ppm of tin on average, and the better-proven part of Roche Dure alone holds 377,000 tonnes of contained tin. That is a resource estimate, not a production plan or a recovery figure.

What could happen next for AVZ Minerals

This section lists what the filings make possible. It does not predict an outcome.

• An ICSID award. A tribunal could award compensation or other relief against the DRC. No merits timetable has been set.
• An ICC award on the joint venture. The hearing is set for 24-28 May 2027. The ruling would decide whether Cominière’s termination of the joint venture was valid.
• A negotiated settlement or sale. AVZ says talks with several parties continue. KoBold remains one possible route, and the DRC and Zijin are the other parties whose consent any deal needs.
• Status quo. Zijin continues to build output and the legal cases run on. AVZ’s funding of up to US$5 million covers arbitration costs only, and the company says it cannot currently fund an active defence of the ASIC case.

Dates to watch: written submissions in the ICC case from October 2026 to April 2027; the ICSID procedural timetable; Zijin’s refining plant, aimed at the end of 2026; and KoBold’s exploration results through early 2027. This page is not investment advice, and the shares have no market price to quote.

How to check a disputed licence before you rely on it

These steps suit consultants who must report on a project whose ownership is contested. They apply to Manono and to any similar case.

1. Get the permit number and type. Manono shows why: PR 13359 (exploration) and PR 15775 cover overlapping ground in AVZ’s account. Our guide to mining cadastre portals by country shows how to search a register.
2. Read the current regulator record, not a company slide. AVZ said in April 2026 that PR 4029 was listed for cancellation for non-payment of surface rates, though it says it had paid, and it lodged an appeal.
3. Separate the owner, the operator and the buyer of the output. At Manono they are different parties, and Zijin handles sales for its venture, according to IDS.
4. Find the dockets. ICSID lists its cases by number (here ARB/23/20). Company announcements state the dates, and the other side’s reports should be read as well.
5. Check site activity independently. Satellite images show whether roads, plants and pits are changing over time, even when the paperwork is unclear. Farmonaut’s mining service can screen an area from space as an exploration target, ahead of any resource estimate.
6. Record the basis of every figure. Use the same interest (attributable or total) and the same period when you compare.

If this topic matters to you, read KoBold Metals vs 6 AI Exploration Firms: Pros and Cons next.

Frequently asked questions

Is AVZ Minerals still listed on the stock exchange?

No. The ASX removed AVZ from its official list on 13 May 2024 after the shares had been suspended for two years (ASX market announcement, 13 May 2024). AVZ remains an unlisted disclosing entity and publishes updates on its own website (AVZ notice to the ASX, 30 April 2024).

What happened to AVZ Minerals and the Manono project?

In 2023 the DRC mines ministry revoked part of AVZ’s permit and reassigned the rights to a Zijin subsidiary, citing slow progress (Mining.com). AVZ says the transfer was unlawful and has brought ICSID and ICC cases. It is not mining at Manono.

Who owns the Manono lithium project now?

That is disputed. Zijin’s subsidiary holds 54.9% of Manono Lithium, Cominière 35.1% and the DRC state 10%, and Zijin operates the plant. AVZ claims 75% of the whole project through Dathcom. The tribunals have not decided the main questions.

Is Manono producing lithium?

Yes, under Zijin. The dense media separation plant started in May 2026, and Zijin reported 5,379 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent from Manono in the first half of 2026 (Zijin interim report, August 2026).

What is Zijin Mining AVZ?

There is no company by that name. The phrase usually refers to Zijin’s role in the Manono dispute with AVZ. Zijin’s subsidiary Jin Cheng Mining is a party in the ICC and Paris cases.

How big is the Manono deposit?

AVZ’s January 2024 estimate is 842 million tonnes at 1.61% Li2O, with 13.52 million tonnes of contained lithium oxide. It is a company estimate prepared by CSA Global and is not a reserve.

Does Manono have tin and iron?

It has tin: 709 ppm on average in AVZ’s resource, and a long mining history. Iron is not a product. AVZ treated iron oxide (about 1.01% Fe2O3) as a potential contaminant.

What is KoBold Metals doing at Manono?

KoBold signed a framework with AVZ in May 2025, but no sale was completed. It has a separate preliminary deal with the DRC and launched a US$50 million exploration campaign on permits in Manono territory in April 2026.

What is the lithium royalty in the DRC?

A draft decree adopted by the cabinet in 2026 adds lithium to the strategic minerals list, which lifts the royalty from 3.5% to 10%. The rates are set by Articles 240 and 241 of the 2018 Mining Code: 10% for strategic substances, 3.5% for non-ferrous and base metals, on gross commercial value at the mine or plant gate (Journal officiel, 28 March 2018). Ecofin reported the draft decree on 1 June 2026 (Ecofin Agency).

When is the next big date for AVZ?

The ICC hearing in the Dathcom joint venture case is scheduled for 24-28 May 2027, with written submissions from October 2026 to April 2027 (AVZ, 29 September 2026).