Dan Gertler

Dan Gertler is an Israeli billionaire businessman in natural resources and the founder and president of the DGI group of companies. Until 2022, his group had mining and oil interests in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and has invested in diamonds, iron ore, gold, cobalt, copper, agriculture, and banking. his fortune was estimated at $1.5 billion by Forbes.

Biography

Dan Gertler is the grandson of Moshe Schnitzer, first president and co-founder of the Israel Diamond Exchange, and the winner of the Israel Prize in 2004. His family was involved in cutting and merchandising diamonds. Gertler was initiated into the diamond trade early on by his father and grandfather. At the age of 22, he opened his own diamond business.

Business career

In 1996, he founded the Dan Gertler International group of companies.

Dan Gertler International (DGI)

International Diamond Industries-Congo (IDI-Congo)

After gaining experience with purchasing and marketing artisanally mined diamonds from the DRC, Gertler started negotiations to establish a partnership with the Societé Minière de Bakwanga, a DRC state-controlled diamond mine operator. Through his friendship with the young Joseph Kabila, Gertler was introduced to his father Laurent Kabila, then-president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in 2000.
From September 2000 through April 2001, Gertler had the sole right to buy "all diamonds produced in territory under the control of the Congolese Government", for which he had paid Kabila $20 million. He ran a quasi "comptoir" in the DRC with International Diamond Industries-Congo, the affiliate of his Israeli firm, IDI-Diamonds Industry. IDI-Congo received 70 percent of the profits and the Congolese Government received 30 percent, which included the state diamond producer, MIBA, and all diamonds sold by private businesses. The deal was to "regulate and certify the origins of its diamonds under new UN requirements intended to weed out blood diamonds" and diamond smuggling. Even with the IDI-Congo monopoly offering below-market prices for diamonds, the Congo received a greater percentage of diamond revenues than before the monopoly was in place.
After Laurent Kabila's assassination in January 2001, Gertler briefly lost influence in the Congo. In April 2001, Laurent's son and successor, Joseph Kabila, revoked IDI's monopoly. DRC diamond producers shut out of the IDI monopoly had been unhappy with the monopoly, and the International Monetary Fund had encouraged the country to liberalize the diamond industry. Gertler soon managed to reestablish a relationship with Joseph Kabila, becoming increasingly close socially, to the point that, in 2006, Kabila invited him to his wedding.
By 2009, DGI group was one of the largest wholesale distributors of rough and polished diamonds in the world. The group spans mining, manufacturing and sales operations.

Emaxon Finance International Inc and the Diamond Industry (2001-2017)

In 2001, Gertler established Emaxon Finance International Inc, in Canada, as a subsidiary of Dan Gertler International
In April 2002, Emaxon signed a contract through which Gertler gained a four-year right to market 88% of the rough-diamond production of the Societé minière de Bakwanga, about a quarter of the DRC's legitimate diamond exports, at around 600,000 carats a month. Emaxon enjoyed a five-percent discount on its purchase of MIBA diamonds, which it then usually sold in the free market to the highest bidder. Emaxon lent MIBA $15 million to modernize its mining equipment. In July 2017, Exmaxon's corporate registration was cancelled after failing to file annual declarations with the Quebec government for two years. The company was also sanctioned by the United States Office of Foreign Assets Control.

Fleurette Group and Fleurette Properties, 2006

Fleurette Properties is a Gibraltar-based company which has at least "60 holding companies in offshore havens such as the Virgin Islands", through which Dan Gertler controlled concessions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Fleurette Group refers to the group of companies with respect to which Fleurette Properties is either the direct or indirect shareholder.
The Fleurette Group owned the Kansuki concession, a Congolese copper and cobalt development project, since 2006. it employed 30 000 people and was the largest source of private receipts for the Congolese government.
In February 2022, the government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo announced that it was close to signing an agreement with the Fleurette Group, owned by the Gertler family, under which it would transfer, among other things, cash, cobalt mines, and oil wells worth two billion dollars to the state. Local organizations praised the decision. Subsequently, Gertler signed the agreement with the Congolese government led by President Félix Tshisekedi.
As part of the agreement, Ventora Group, owned by the Gertler family, transferred all the mining and oil licenses it held, including the research results it had conducted on the assets over the years, worth 2-3 billion dollars. Ventora also agreed to pay Gécamines, the state mining company, a significant portion of the royalties it received from Katanga Mining, as the profits from the deal exceeded expectations due to changes in the copper and cobalt market. This was after Gécamines and the Congolese government verified that the transactions were conducted legally and at market value at the time.
As part of the exit agreement from business initiatives in Congo, the United States is considering lifting the sanctions against Gertler.

Family trust

In 2007 Gertler's family trust was the major shareholder of Prairie International Ltd., owner of "Tremalt Limited, which owned 80% of Savannah Mining, the holder of the other half of copper and cobalt operation Mukondo, as well as concessions C17 and C18 in the mineral-rich Katanga Province" of the DRC.

Global Enterprises Corporate and Nikanor (2004-2008)

In March 2004, DGI founded Global Enterprises Corporate in partnership with Beny Steinmetz Global. In May 2004 GEC signed an agreement with the state-owned Gécamines, finalized in September 2004, to rehabilitate and operate the Kananga and Tilwezembe copper mines. The deal was ratified 13 October 2005 by presidential decree. This deal was later found by the World Bank, reviewing the DRC's three biggest mining contracts, to have been approved with "a complete lack of transparency".
Global Enterprises Corporate's mining assets ended up being held by Nikanor plc, registered in the Isle of Man. For example, Gertler and Steinmetz placed Global Enterprises Corporate 's 75% share in KOV into Nikanor. Nikanor was owned 75% by GEC and 25% by Gécamines at the time Nikanor was first floated on the Alternative Investment Market in July 2006. This IPO raised $400 million, and Nikanor's market capitalization reached $1.5 billion.
In February 2007, 22% of the Nikanor Mining company was owned by the Gertner Family Trust and 14% by Dan Gertler.
In January 2008 Katanga Mining acquired Nikanor plc for $452m, rendering the company defunct.

DEM Mining 2006 - cobalt and copper in Katanga Copper Belt

In April 2006 Gertler's DGI took a major stake in DEM Mining, a cobalt-copper mining and services company based in Katanga.

Tremalt Ltd 2006 Mukondo Mine, Kanaga Copper Belt

In June 2006 Gertler bought Tremalt, which had a half share in the Mukondo Mine, for about $60 million from the Zimbabwean businessman John Bredenkamp.
In 2007 Tremalt was owned by Prairie International Ltd, of which Dan Gertler's family trust was a major shareholder. Tremalt owned 80% of Savannah Mining, which held concessions C17 and C18 in Katanga Province and 50% of the Mukondo project. The other 50% of Mukondo was held by Boss Mining, which in turn was 80% owned by Central African Mining & Exploration Company. Boss Mining had rented and operated Bredenkamp's half of Mukondo. Gertler terminated this arrangement.

Prairie International Ltd. 2007 Mukondo, Kanaga Copper Belt

When CAMEC bought Boss Mining in February 2006, its then- owner, Billy Rautenbach, a Zimbabwe businessman, gained about 17% of CAMEC shares.
Gertler and CAMEC made plans to combine the Mukondo assets and a Katanga Province copper and cobalt project, into a new holding company. Rautenbach would be excluded from ownership in the new company, due to the hostile relations that had developed between him and the DRC government.
In November 2007, Prairie International and CAMEC signed a memorandum of understanding to complete the deal. In November 2007 the digital mining industry Miningmx reported that Dan Gertler's Prairie International Ltd. and CAMEC had created a joint venture vehicle in the Mukondo with concessions held by the state-owned Gécamines. "Tremalt will be transferred into the joint venture vehicle."
In February 2008 the two companies announced that the Mukondo Mountain operations had restarted.

Glencore partnership 2007

Gertler has been a partner with Glencore International Plc., the largest company in Switzerland and the world's largest commodities trading company. One of their mines is Mutanda.
In the course of the Congo events, Glencore and Gertler partnered in Nikanor from 2007 until the final merger with Katanga Mining in late 2007 in a transaction valued at US$3.3 billion. A 2011 article by Reuters journalists described Glencore as "the biggest company you never heard of":

In June 2007, Glencore and partner Dan Gertler, an Israeli mining magnate, paid 300 million for a quarter of mining company Nikanor, which planned to revive derelict copper mines next to Katanga Mining's properties. The contract gave Glencore exclusive sales rights to all Nikanor's output, an "offtake" agreement.
Katanga lost 97% of its market value over the final six months of 2008. Running out of cash in the financial crisis, Katanga accepted control, issuing more than a billion new shares for about US$500 million in a convertible loan and rights issue. A share that grew to 74% went to Glencore. In 2011 copper prices regularly set records above US$10,000 a ton, and the value of Katanga's stock market value was nearly US$3.2 billion. Katanga lost US$108 million in 2009, but posted an annual profit of US$265 million in 2010.

Glencore had initially stopped all payments to Gertler to respect the 2013 US sanctions, but following a lawsuit filed by Gertler in a Congolese court, Glencore paid about 2.5% of the sales from its mines in the Congo in royalties to Gertler in euros, not dollars.