The Manono Ledger
Red laterite plateau and a pale mining scar on the Manono highlands.

Manono · Tanganyika · DRC

The lithium arrived. The pay did not.

An interactive ledger of what the Chinese company Manono Lithium SAS — a Zijin Mining joint venture on one of the world’s largest hard-rock lithium deposits — has taken, promised, and left unpaid. Compiled from published reporting, worker testimony, and official estimates. Allegations are labelled as such.

Public-interest briefing · Not a verdict · Not legal advice Full legal notice

Manono Lithium SASChinese companyZijin MiningChinese company
50%
of one operator’s wage withheld, unexplained

1.8M FC promised · 900,000 FC paid

13 / 28
days paid to a machine operator who worked the month

Strike, 9–11 September 2026

$0
documented return to Manono’s hospital, school or dam

Against $70M sent to a politically connected NGO

English translation
Manono Lithium SASChinese company

Kiki Kienge · 9 Sept 2026

The roundabout, 9 September

Kienge’s own camera at the cathedral roundabout. Workers of the Chinese company Manono Lithium SAS have stopped the buses. A driver says he worked 28 days and was paid for 13. The posted daily wage sits below the legal minimum.

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Eight files

Problems on the ground

Open a file. Each one is a documented harm by the Chinese company Manono Lithium SAS to workers, neighbours, water, the public purse, or the Mining Code — not a slogan.

Manono Lithium SASChinese companyFile 01Documented9–11 Sept 2026

Wages cut, days unpaid

On 9–10 September 2026, staff of the Chinese company Manono Lithium SAS walked off the job. Operators described unexplained deductions that halved take-home pay, a clock-in system treated like casual day labour, and a machine operator paid for 13 of 28 days worked.

Who pays the cost. Congolese employees of the Chinese company Manono Lithium SAS, starting in the internal engineering department, then bus and heavy-equipment crews, then the wider workforce.

  • Halved wage

    An operator who should have received 1,800,000 Congolese francs took home 900,000 FC, with no explanation given.

  • Days erased

    A machine operator said he worked 28 days and was paid for 13.

  • Broken promise

    Staff say management promised a gradual wage improvement at the start of operations. It did not arrive.

  • Conditions

    Demands also covered food quality during shifts, payment of base salary in dollars, recognition of seniority and diplomas, and night-work premiums.

“Imaginez-vous un opérateur qui devrait être payé 1 million 800 mille francs mais se retrouve avec 900.000 FC.”

Imagine an operator who should be paid 1 million 800 thousand francs but finds himself with 900,000 FC.

— Manono Lithium worker, speaking anonymously to Magazine La Guardia, 10 Sept 2026

Sources: Magazine La Guardia · AfroNews24 · Kiki Kienge / X

Open the wage ledger

Law 18-001 · 2018 Mining Code

What the Code requires — and what was reported

Open an article. The left column is the statute. The right is what investigators, the provincial authority and the inspector-general have published about the Chinese company Manono Lithium SAS and Zijin. These are reported breaches, labelled as such — not a court finding.

Manono Lithium SASChinese companyZijin MiningChinese company

  • 60 days

    to publish a mining contract — the 2023 JV still unpublished

  • 4 months

    to turn a research permit into an exploitation permit

  • 1 year late

    public consultation held after the ESIA was already filed

  • 0 cahier

    signed social pact before the 2024 provincial freeze

Manono Lithium SASChinese companyZijin MiningChinese companyDocumented2023 – still unpublished

Publish the contract in 60 days

Art. 7 quater

What the Code requires

Mining contracts, their schedules and their amendments shall be published in the Official Gazette and on the website of the Ministry of Mines within 60 days of their signature. Art. 7 ter and 54 bis also require disclosure of beneficial owners.

What was reported

Resource Matters: ‘the most striking example is the contract creating the joint venture Manono Lithium SAS, signed in 2023 and never published.’ Most joint-venture contracts between Cominière and private partners remain unpublished, and the money that moved with them is unknown.

Sources: Resource Matters (PDF) · Resource Matters

Law 18-001 · what Australian AVZ lodged

The Code’s minimum — and how Australian AVZ went past it

Same eight articles as the chapter above. The left column is the statutory floor. The middle is what Australian AVZ / Dathcom filed, built or designed — often more than the Code asked, and years before a mill would have turned. The right is the reported record of the Chinese company Manono Lithium SAS and Zijin. AVZ’s own filings are the source for what AVZ did. This is not a court finding that AVZ was perfect.

AVZ Minerals / DathcomAustralian company

  • 7 ESIAs

    approved 2020–21 — the Code asks for the mine’s

  • Equator P4

    human-rights screen the Code does not require

  • SDP 2021

    years before the six-month cahier deadline

  • 0.3% vehicle

    designed on a research permit, before any turnover

AVZ Minerals / DathcomAustralian companyExceeded the minimum2016 – 2021 filings, still public

Publish the contract — and then some

Art. 7 quater

How it exceeded the minimumASX continuous disclosure is a listing rule, not a Code article. AVZ published the file to the Australian market as well as to Kinshasa.

What the Code requires — the minimum

Mining contracts, schedules and amendments must be published in the Official Gazette and on the Ministry of Mines website within 60 days. Arts. 7 ter and 54 bis also require beneficial-owner disclosure.

What Australian AVZ lodged

The Dathcom joint-venture split (Australian AVZ majority, Cominière 25%), the April 2020 DFS, the 4 May 2021 PE application under art. 64, and the seven ESIA approvals were put on the ASX. Pre-emptive rights, the IGF fight and the ICC/ICSID cases are on the public record. That is more than a 60-day Gazette posting.

Manono Lithium SASChinese company

What was reported for Chinese Manono Lithium / Zijin

Resource Matters: the 2023 contract creating the Chinese company Manono Lithium SAS has never been published. The money that moved with it is unknown.

Sources: AVZ Minerals / MarketScreener · AVZ Minerals · Resource Matters (PDF)

The other prospectus

What Australian AVZ said the camp would look like

Before the title was steered to the Chinese company Manono Lithium SAS (Zijin), Australian miner AVZ Minerals — through Dathcom — published a village of painted cottages, indoor taps, a gym and a hospital upgrade, and started building it. The films below play in the language you chose at the top of the page.

AVZ Minerals / DathcomAustralian company
Yellow-painted cottages with red roofs under construction at AVZ’s camp near Manono, August 2021.

Company photograph, 17 Aug 2021 — cottages being finished at the construction camp. Photograph · @AvzMinerals

b-one TV Congo · 16 Nov 2022 · original French

Modern houses at Camp Colline

Provincial officials walk the cottages: two-room and four-room houses with internal toilets and showers, built with local labour and local materials. About forty were standing; more were going up.

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Side by side

Australian AVZ’s plan · Chinese Manono Lithium’s record

Open a row. The left column is what Australian company AVZ Minerals / Dathcom tabled in its DFS, sustainability report and camp films. The right is what reporting has documented since the Chinese company Manono Lithium SAS took the ground.

AVZ Minerals / DathcomAustralian company

Australian AVZ projected

80 cottages already built at Camp Colline by 2021, 182 more scheduled. Two-room and four-room houses with indoor sanitation, local brick and labour. Mess, kitchen, gym, wastewater plant.

Manono Lithium SASChinese company

Chinese Manono Lithium delivered

No equivalent published housing programme. After the September 2026 strike the company promised to improve the canteen and help drivers renew licences — not to house families.

Audio on the house film is a spoken version of the b-one TV report. The two AVZ fly-throughs are narrations of what those animations show. AVZ’s camp was a plan in motion, not a finished town — and Global Witness criticised the company in 2021 for slow ESIA disclosure. The point of this page is not to canonise AVZ. It is to show the standard of housing that was already being filmed on the same ground before the title changed hands.

Required by law

The studies Australian AVZ completed

The DRC Mining Code will not convert a research permit into a mining licence without a feasibility study and an environmental and social impact assessment. AVZ says it lodged both, plus six infrastructure ESIAs, a mine-closure plan and a social development plan. Open a study for the summary and the documents that are actually online.

AVZ Minerals / DathcomAustralian company

The seven ESIAs

Submitted to the Environment Minister between August 2020 and May 2021. Approved between November 2020 and August 2021. The mine ESIA was signed by DPEM on 18 August 2021.

  1. 01 · Dec 2020Road refurbishment Ngoye to Kabondo Dianda (~340 km)Nyuki Logistics SASUACE
  2. 02 · Dec 2020Ferry crossing of the Lualaba at Mulongo / KabweNyuki Logistics SASUACE
  3. 03 · Dec 2020Kabondo Dianda intermodal staging stationNyuki Logistics SASUACE
  4. 04 · Nov 2020Road refurbishment Manono to Mpiana-MwangaAVZ Power SAUEnvironment Ministry
  5. 05 · Nov 2020120 kV line Mpiana-Mwanga to Manono (~87 km)AVZ Power SAUEnvironment Ministry
  6. 06 · Nov 2020Mpiana-Mwanga hydro-electric plant refurbishmentAVZ Power SAUEnvironment Ministry
  7. 07 · 18 Aug 2021Mine and ore-processing plant at Manono (PR 13359)Dathcom Mining SADPEM, Ministry of Mines

Full environmental and social impact study of the pit, plant and camp. Baseline biodiversity, water, air and community consultation. AVZ classed the project IFC Category B: limited, site-specific, largely reversible impacts. Approval bundled the Environmental Management Plan, Mine Closure Plan and Sustainable Development Plan.

Legal basis

Mining Regulations arts. 450–451 and Annex VIII; Environment Law 11/009 art. 37; Decree 14/019 art. 18. Lodging the ESIA with the mining cadastre is a condition precedent for converting a research permit into a mining licence.

EmiAfrica SARL (Lubumbashi), for Dathcom Mining SA

  • No impact claimed on Critically Endangered or Endangered species, or on legally protected areas (EmiAfrica 2021).
  • Stakeholder meetings in 2019–21 fed the ESIA and the EMP.
  • The full ESIA itself was not posted on the CTCPM site. Global Witness and New Lines report civil society could not obtain a copy, despite art. 25 octies requiring public access to at least a summary.

Supporting documents

A projection

If Australian AVZ were mining now

This is not a photograph of 2026. It is a picture of the town AVZ’s own social plan, feasibility study and foundation were written to make — if the title had held, the mill had turned, and the money had stayed in Manono. Tap a scene. The colour is the point.

AVZ Minerals / DathcomAustralian company
Sunlit classroom of Congolese children in yellow uniforms, seated facing a teacher writing on the blackboard.Prospectus

Children

A school with desks, water and light

AVZ’s social plan named school buildings with water, power and desks. In a town where mangoes have been a lunch, that is not a small thing. Children who can read under a fan, with a tap at the back of the room, are children who can sit an exam — and later take a plane. Happiness here is ordinary: a raised hand, a book that is theirs, a teacher who is paid.

From AVZ’s planSDP / ESIA: upgrade schools (water, power, desks). AVZ Foundation to fund community projects once revenue started. Mining Code art. 258 bis: at least 0.3% of turnover to local development.

Editorial plates, not news photographs. They reconstruct a possible Manono from Australian AVZ’s SDP, DFS and sustainability report: school water and desks, a hospital with an ambulance, hydro back to the street, local hiring, a foundation fed by 0.3% of turnover, royalties to the town. Happiness here is not a slogan. It is a paid teacher, a working lamp, a child who can sit an exam, a young person with a ticket. What the Chinese company Manono Lithium has delivered is the rest of this ledger.

Payroll reconstruction

Open the wage ledger

Kiki Kienge’s field tape from the cathedral roundabout, then two named cases. Reconstruct the month. The red cells are the days and francs that never arrived.

English translation
Manono Lithium SASChinese company

Kiki Kienge · 9 Sept 2026

The roundabout, 9 September

Kienge’s own camera at the cathedral roundabout. Workers of the Chinese company Manono Lithium SAS have stopped the buses. A driver says he worked 28 days and was paid for 13. The posted daily wage sits below the legal minimum.

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Manono Lithium SASChinese company

Chinese company Manono Lithium SAS · September 2026

The operator

Internal engineering / plant operator

Should have been paid

1 800 000 FC

Took home

900 000 FC

Unexplained deduction. No payslip explanation was given, workers told La Guardia. 50% of the month was withheld.

One payslip, split

Paid · 900 000 FC
Withheld · 900 000 FC

These are company commitments, published after traffic in Manono was paralysed. They had not been independently verified three days later. Promises are not payment.

Follow the cash

Who was paid — and who was not

Click a recipient. The bars are drawn to the same scale. The last bar is the town that sits on the ore.

Manono Lithium SASChinese companyZijin MiningChinese company

The IGF report · 30 November 2022

“Show me the crime.”

President Félix Tshisekedi told Congolese youth, that same day, to show him the evidence of corruption and he would act. The General Inspectorate of Finance had just published it. Four years later, nothing has changed.

“Provide me with evidence of corruption and I will act.”

“Fournissez-moi des preuves de corruption et j’agirai.”

— President Félix Tshisekedi · 30 November 2022

$120.76M

lost to the treasury on one 15% slice

DFS: 100% of Dathcom = $1.028 billion. 15% should have been $154.2 million. Sold to Zijin for $33.44 million.

~$6.8M

taken as commissions and fees from the proceeds

Including $1.672 million to Focus Plaidoirie and $1.672 million as “exceptional remuneration” to the board — not to the pit, the hospital or the dam.

Sell-off

the inspector’s word, not ours

“A real sell-off of the mining heritage of the State.” “Intentionally sold off by its management team with the participation of the Ministry of the Portfolio.”

Nothing has changed

Nothing has changed. The title sits with the Chinese company Manono Lithium SAS, a Zijin joint venture. The $120.76 million never came back to the treasury as Manono’s hospital, school or dam. In September 2026 the workers were still unpaid.

Read the IGF report (English)Watch Tshisekedi ask for the evidence

State loss, IGF

>$120M

Inspector-general estimate of value leaked through cheap share sales and undervalued public assets.

Stake, IGF view

~$150M

What the 15% Cominière slice may have been worth, against $33.44M declared.

Dathcom tax 2021–22

<$260k

Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative figure cited by ZAM — the official take, while intermediaries took millions.

Concession edge

Three villages on the moving fence

Tap a marker. Majondo, Matala and Lwamba sit where preliminary works are expanding. The river is the other neighbour.

Manono Lithium SASChinese company
White lithium pegmatite in red laterite soil, a rusted shovel unused.
PR 15775ManonoMajondoMatalaLwambaLukushi River
Village at risk Town / water Concession

At risk

Majondo

Named in 2025 investigations as facing displacement as Manono Lithium’s preliminary works expand toward village land. No public compensation schedule has been produced.

Ten years

How the promise was spent

From the joint venture in 2016 to the Cathedral roundabout in 2026. Select a year.

AVZ Minerals / DathcomAustralian companyManono Lithium SASChinese company

9–11 Sept 2026

The town stops the buses

Workers halt buses and heavy plant and gather at the Cathedral roundabout. They want the wages they were told they would earn. Management issues a list of promises. Whether the promises are paid is the next line in this ledger.

On the record

What the people of Manono said

The original French is kept where it was spoken. English follows.

Manono Lithium SASChinese company
Dusk over a dusty mining-town street of brick and metal roofs.

Manono waits

“Fournissez-moi des preuves de corruption et j’agirai.”

Provide me with evidence of corruption and I will act.

President Félix Tshisekedi · Meeting with Congolese youth, 30 Nov 2022 — the day the IGF report was published

“Imaginez-vous un opérateur qui devrait être payé 1 million 800 mille francs mais se retrouve avec 900.000 FC.”

Imagine an operator who should be paid 1 million 800 thousand francs but finds himself with 900,000 FC.

Worker at the Chinese company Manono Lithium SAS, anonymous · Magazine La Guardia, 10 Sept 2026

“Jusqu’à présent, il n’y a eu que des recherches et la vente de périmètres miniers, avec des millions de dollars qui se sont évaporés entre les individus. Ni le trésor public, ni la communauté locale n’en ont profité.”

Up to now, it's been nothing more than research and the sale of mining perimeters, with millions of dollars evaporating between the individuals. Neither the public treasury nor the local community have benefited from this.

Abbé Moïse Kiluba · ZAM Magazine / Museba Project, 2025

“Nous, les habitants de Manono, nous ne connaissons pas les conséquences de cette exploitation.”

We, the inhabitants of Manono, we don’t know the consequences of this exploitation.

Eric Mutombo, local radio · New Lines Magazine, 2023

“This conflict is affecting us. We are waiting for the lithium mining project to develop Manono.”

Dieumerci Kabila, radio journalist and activist · Mongabay, 2024

“Shell companies profit while Congolese citizens wait for change.”

Global Witness, as quoted in Granta · 2024

Method

How this ledger was built

Every figure and quote is tied to a published source. This is a briefing, not a court. Where investigators say ‘alleged’, so do we.

Manono Lithium SASChinese companyZijin MiningChinese companyAVZ Minerals / DathcomAustralian company

Manono Lithium SAS is a Chinese company: a joint venture of China’s Zijin Mining (through Jinxiang Lithium) and the Congolese state miner Cominière. It holds exploration permit PR 15775 over part of the Manono hard-rock lithium deposit in Tanganyika province. Australian company AVZ Minerals, through Dathcom, disputes the title; an ICC tribunal found Cominière in breach and ordered payment of about €39.1 million. That ruling did not hand the ground back.

The AVZ chapter uses the company’s own 2020 feasibility study, 2021 sustainability report, seven approved ESIAs (summarised there), camp photographs posted by @AvzMinerals, and three films — including b-one TV’s November 2022 walk through the cottages. Spoken audio on those films follows the language chosen at the top of the page. Editorial plates reconstruct interiors and aerials described in those sources; they are labelled as plates, not news photographs.

  1. 01 · 10 Sept 2026 · Magazine La Guardia

    Manono Lithium SAS : la colère des agents monte

    On-the-ground account of the 9–10 September 2026 walkout, including the 1.8M vs 900,000 FC wage cut.

  2. 02 · 9 Sept 2026 · Kiki Kienge / X

    MANONO : exploitation des travailleurs ?

    Field video from the cathedral roundabout. Daily wage 21,000 FC vs SMIG 21,500 FC. Driver: 28 days worked, 13 paid.

  3. 03 · 11 Sept 2026 · AfroNews24

    Après la grève, Manono Lithium promet de corriger plusieurs problèmes sociaux

    Company communiqué after the strike; machine operator paid 13 of 28 days.

  4. 04 · 25 Aug 2025 · ZAM Magazine

    Sell Outs

    Long investigation of Manono deal-making, displacement risk, and Abbé Kiluba’s testimony.

  5. 05 · 28 Aug 2025 · The Museba Project

    À Manono, le lithium génère des millions de dollars. Mais les habitants peinent à survivre.

  6. 06 · 8 Dec 2025 · Resource Matters

    Manono: Nine red flags in the nascent lithium sector in the DRC

  7. 07 · 10 Dec 2025 · Mines.cd

    Manono paralysé : corruption et opacité menacent le gisement

    Reports IGF estimate of more than $120M in state losses.

  8. 08 · 17 Aug 2026 · AfroNews24

    Les 70 millions $ de Zijin ne doivent pas être présentés comme prix d’acquisition

  9. 09 · 12 Oct 2023 · New Lines Magazine

    The Dirty Business of Green Energy in Congo

  10. 10 · 8 Aug 2024 · Mongabay

    Disputed Manono lithium mining project in DRC sparks concern

  11. 11 · 5 June 2024 · Actualite.cd

    Qu’est-ce qui bloque le démarrage du projet d’exploitation de Lithium à Manono ?

    Local authorities suspended Manono Lithium activity citing unmet community specifications.

  12. 12 · July 2025 · Afrewatch

    Étude socio-économique, chefferies de Bakongolo et de Kiluba

  13. 13 · 17 Mar 2025 · Mining Technology

    AVZ Minerals wins legal battle over Congo lithium mine dispute

  14. 14 · 30 Nov 2022 · Inspection Générale des Finances (IGF)

    Summary report on the transfer of Cominière S.A. shares in Dathcom Mining SA

    State inspectorate: 15% sold to Zijin for $33.44M against a DFS value of $154.2M — $120.76M lost to the treasury. “A real sell-off of the mining heritage of the State.”

  15. 15 · 6 Dec 2022 · AVZ Minerals / ASX

    DRC General Inspectorate of Finance Report

    English summary of the IGF findings, including $6.8M taken as commissions and fees from the Zijin proceeds.

  16. 16 · 30 Nov 2022 · YouTube / public audience

    Tshisekedi meeting with Congolese youth: “show me the evidence”

    Same day as the IGF report. Tshisekedi asks for proof of corruption among ministers and officials, and says he will act if it is shown.

  17. 17 · 2026 · African Security Analysis

    Manono Lithium Complex and related financial gaps

    Tracks the $70M package, a reported $30M shortfall, and IGF valuation gap.

  18. 18 · 21 Apr 2020 · AVZ Minerals / MarketScreener

    Definitive Feasibility Study for Manono Lithium and Tin Project

    ASX release of the DFS. ESIA lodged as a condition for converting PR 13359 to a mining licence; camp, EMP and social plan described.

  19. 19 · 17 June 2022 · AVZ Minerals

    Sustainability Report 2020–2021

    80 cottages built, 182 more scheduled. Records seven ESIAs approved 2020–21, plus EMP, mine-closure plan, SDP, human-rights screen and displacement study.

  20. 20 · 18 Aug 2021 · SmallCaps / AVZ

    AVZ Minerals receives environmental approval for Manono lithium-tin project

    DPEM signed the mine-and-plant ESIA — the first step in the mining-licence process.

  21. 21 · 2021 · AVZ Minerals / ERM

    Manono Project Greenhouse Gas Assessment

    Company page for the ERM greenhouse-gas inventory of the planned operation.

  22. 22 · 13 Dec 2021 · Global Witness

    Renewable energy at what cost? DRC’s nascent lithium sector

    Could not find the ESIA on the CTCPM site. Argues non-publication breaches Mining Regulation art. 25 octies.

  23. 23 · 16 Nov 2022 · b-one TV Congo

    Manono: Construction des habitations modernes par AVZ Minerals

    On-site film of two- and four-room cottages with internal sanitation, built with local labour and materials.

  24. 24 · 2021–2023 · AVZ Minerals Ltd

    Fly through video of the Manono Lithium and Tin Project

  25. 25 · 17 Aug 2021 · @AvzMinerals

    Workers finishing houses at the construction camp near Manono

  26. 26 · Feb 2026 · Resource Matters (PDF)

    Neuf signaux d’alerte dans le secteur naissant du lithium en RDC (PDF)

    Pages 19–24: ESIA filed then consulted a year later; summaries unpublished contrary to art. 30; Manono Lithium SAS JV contract unpublished contrary to the 60-day rule; PE obtained in four months.

  27. 27 · 7 Jan 2026 · Cominière / Resource Matters

    Cominière’s reply to Resource Matters and the Business and Human Rights Centre

    State miner’s reply: the fight is a joint-venture dispute; CAMI issues permits; contracts were sent to the mining-contracts commission; Cominière says it made no NGO payments.

  28. 28 · 4 Sept 2026 · Mines.cd

    0,3 % du chiffre d’affaires : comment la loi oblige les mines à développer les communautés locales en RDC

    Explains arts. 285 sexies and 258 bis: cahier des charges approved by the province at least six months before exploitation; 0.3% of turnover to communities.

  29. 29 · 30 July 2024 · AVZ Minerals / Jus Mundi

    Letter to the Prime Minister on the conversion of PR 15775 into a mining licence

    AVZ says Manono Lithium SAS’s application to convert PR 15775 into an exploitation permit was approved on 26 July 2024 in a ‘record short period’.

Editorial plates are atmospheric reconstructions of the Manono plateau, town grain and pegmatite — not news photographs of named people. The map is a schematic, not a surveyed cadastral plan. Last updated 14 September 2026.

Author’s shield

Legal notice — no proceeding without this page

This instrument is the condition of access. It protects the author and every person who compiled, hosted, translated, or displayed the ledger. It is not a finding against the companies named. Open an article. Print it. Send it with any complaint.

Version 2026-09-14.3 · Updated 14 September 2026

In five lines

  1. 01This is journalism, criticism, and public-interest commentary. It is not a verdict, a regulator’s finding, or legal or investment advice.
  2. 02Every company and person named is presumed innocent of crime or civil wrong except as a competent court has found.
  3. 03The author and all Protected Parties rely on fair report, honest opinion, public interest, and qualified privilege. Claims without 30 days’ prior written notice are barred as a condition precedent.
  4. 04The Work is provided as-is. Aggregate liability is capped at USD 10 or the amount you paid (zero).
  5. 05English and French texts are both official; the version more protective of the Protected Parties prevails.

THE MANONO LEDGER — LEGAL NOTICE, DISCLAIMER, LIMITATION OF LIABILITY, AND TERMS OF USE. This instrument is a condition of access. By opening, viewing, linking to, embedding, quoting, downloading, translating, screenshotting, indexing, training on, or otherwise using this exhibit (the “Work”), you irrevocably acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agreed to it in full. If you do not agree, you must leave immediately and delete any copy. Continued presence on the page after the first screen is acceptance. A click on “I accept” is additional evidence of assent, not a prerequisite of it.

This notice is made for the benefit of the author, authors, editor, compiler, researcher, translator, narrator, designer, publisher, host, platform operator, preview operator, and any natural or legal person, contractor, volunteer, or system (including any artificial-intelligence system used to draft, assemble, illustrate, narrate, or translate) who created, hosted, cached, transmitted, or displayed the Work, together with their officers, employees, agents, insurers, successors, and assigns (together, the “Protected Parties”).

Every Protected Party is a third-party beneficiary and may rely on every clause as if they had signed it. A claim against one is a claim against the notice. No Protected Party is a partner, joint venturer, or agent of any company named in the Work.

Nothing in the Work is published in the name of, or with the authority of, Manono Lithium SAS, Zijin Mining Group Co., Ltd., Jinxiang Lithium, Cominière, Dathcom Mining SA, AVZ Minerals Limited, the Inspection Générale des Finances, the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Commonwealth of Australia, or the People’s Republic of China.

You have been told, in two languages, that this is a ledger of published reporting and honest comment, not a courtroom. If that is not acceptable, close the page. If you stay, you stay on these terms — for yourself, and for anyone you show it to.

Legal notices under clause 11: send via the contact channel of the host on which this Work is published, marked “Manono Ledger — legal notice — do not publish”, with the URL of the passage, the precise words, and a proposed correction. Do not use that channel for comment, threats, or press.

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