DRC Deploys Eight Aircraft in Three-Year Drive to Unlock New Mineral Wealth

The Democratic Republic of Congo has launched an ambitious three-year programme to map large parts of its largely unexplored mineral territory, using eight specialised aircraft to identify potential deposits and provide investors with better geological information.

The Programme of Aerogeophysical and Geological Mapping of the DRC, known as PC2G-RDC, was officially launched on October 5 at Ndolo National Airport in Kinshasa under the patronage of President Félix Tshisekedi.

The programme is being carried out by Spanish geophysical company Xcalibur Multiphysics Group and is expected to run for 36 months.

The scale of the project is significant.

The surveys are expected to cover more than 700,000 square kilometres across several regions, including Kongo Central, Kwango, Kwilu, Grand Kasaï and Grand Katanga.

The aircraft will collect magnetic, radiometric, gravimetric and electromagnetic data, creating a detailed geological picture of areas where exploration remains limited.

According to Mines Minister Louis Watum Kabamba, the programme is expected to increase the country’s geoscientific coverage from 22.27% to 46.1%.

For a country with some of the world’s most important deposits of copper and cobalt, improving geological knowledge could have major implications for future mining investment.

The DRC is already a global mining powerhouse, but significant areas of its territory remain insufficiently explored.

That creates a challenge for companies considering new projects.

Mineral exploration is expensive and inherently risky. Companies can spend years and substantial amounts of capital drilling targets that ultimately fail to produce commercially viable deposits.

More detailed geological data can reduce some of that uncertainty by identifying areas with geological characteristics associated with mineralisation before companies commit to extensive exploration programmes.

The PC2G-RDC programme is therefore intended to do more than simply produce maps.

The airborne surveys will be combined with fieldwork and geological analysis to identify potential mineralisation and establish a new geological baseline for the country.

The resulting information is expected to guide more targeted exploration and drilling.

It could also give the government better information for managing mineral resources and assessing investment opportunities.

The project builds on a mapping programme that dates back to 2017, when the DRC first entered into an agreement with Xcalibur for airborne geological and geophysical surveys.

The programme was subsequently amended in 2019 and 2022, with the work divided into different phases. In January 2026, the government signed a further contract with Xcalibur to advance the next phase.

The National Geological Service of Congo is coordinating the programme under the Ministry of Mines, with financing provided by the Mining Fund for Future Generations.

The timing is particularly important as global demand for critical minerals continues to reshape mining investment.

The DRC already dominates global cobalt production and is one of the world’s leading copper producers. Greater geological understanding could reveal additional deposits of these minerals as well as other resources important to energy, manufacturing and technology supply chains.

For Kinshasa, better geological information could also strengthen the state’s position when negotiating with mining companies.

A clearer understanding of where mineral resources are located gives governments greater capacity to plan infrastructure, manage concessions and assess the long-term economic potential of mining regions.

It could also help attract investors into areas that have historically received limited exploration because geological information was insufficient.

Xcalibur brings experience from similar airborne geophysical projects elsewhere in Africa, including magnetic and radiometric surveys in Nigeria.

The company will now deploy that expertise across a much larger and strategically important geological landscape in the DRC.

The programme will not produce new mines overnight.

Exploration data must still be interpreted, targets drilled, resources confirmed and projects assessed for commercial viability. Infrastructure, financing, permitting and security will also determine whether newly identified deposits eventually become operating mines.

But the first step is knowing where the resources are.

With eight aircraft surveying hundreds of thousands of square kilometres over the next three years, the DRC is attempting to close one of the biggest gaps in its mining industry: understanding the full extent of the mineral wealth beneath its territory.

If successful, the programme could provide the geological foundation for the country’s next generation of mining projects.