CONGO-K New lithium tycoon, Gagnon gives hydropower a try

摘要

Quebecois entrepreneur Dave Gagnon is making moves in Congo-K’s power market with help from his mining buddies. While at the helm of Tantalex Resources Corp, which last year bought lithium tailings in the Manono mining hub (read our In Focus), Gagnon has launched into hydropower with his new firm Hydro Congo RDC. Tantalex vice president Sylvain Giffard, who is also second in command of the battery manufacturer Gagnon directs, Charbone Buckell, is on board of the new venture. Hydro Congo’s head of projects will be Daniel Charette, a Quebecois energy expert with whom Gagnon founded wind power specialist AAER that later went bankrupt in 2010. In 2013, businessman Louis-Pierre Lafortune was summoned to testify before the Charbonneau Commission leading a probe into a series of corruption cases in Quebec, over his $200,000 investment in AAER and use of a lobbyist connected to the former Prime Minister Jean Charest. Congolese national Jean-Paul Tete, who previously was in charge of sales at textile giant Utex Africa, which has since folded, will be in charge of project development at Hydro Congo.