With the intention of reviving mineral exports and their economies, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Angola plan to renovate a railway line connecting Congolese mining regions to the Atlantic Ocean.

Luanda and Kinshasa have granted a group of investors a 30-year concession to operate the line connecting the Angolan port of Lobito to Kolwezi, in the heart of the region producing minerals, especially copper, in the DRC. This project, costing 555 million dollars, is partly financed by the United States. It is supposed to make it possible to develop the export of copper ore, among other things, regional trade and to strengthen Angola's ties with Western countries

It is noted that the railway line extends approximately 1,700 km and was built 100 years ago by British investors. However, the Angolan part of the line was formed at the height of the civil war that ravaged the country between 1975 and 2002, and then abandoned