Africa Finance Corporation announced financial close on 3 July 2026 for a USD 753 million financing package comprising USD 553 million from the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation and USD 200 million from the Development Bank of Southern Africa. The funds support rehabilitation of the 1,300-kilometre brownfield rail corridor linking the Port of Lobito on Angola's Atlantic coast to the Democratic Republic of Congo border, together with the adjoining mineral terminal.
The concessionaire is Lobito Atlantic Railway S.A., a joint venture between Mota-Engil and Trafigura, with Vecturis among the sponsors. AFC has stated that the financing is expected to increase Lobito's transportation capacity ten-fold, to approximately 4.6 million metric tonnes per annum. Separately, concession arrangements provide for construction of a new line of approximately 800 kilometres connecting the Benguela railway at Luacano in Angola to the Zambian network at Chingola.
The corridor's relevance to mineral title is direct: it crosses several areas where mineral operations take place and is regarded as fundamental to exports and to inbound supply of goods and equipment. Pensana's Longonjo rare earth project in Huambo Province, for instance, sits adjacent to the corridor.
Transport capacity does not change a resource. It changes the cut-off grade at which one becomes economic — and therefore which retained areas merit continued expenditure.