Katanga's subsidiary Kamoto Copper Company (KCC) agreed in December to buy land adjacent to its mine from Gecamines and said it would pay an initial tranche of $150 million.
Katanga said in a statement that it had received an injunction order from Congolese prosecutors that prevented it from making payments until the investigation, which was announced in December, was concluded.
"KCC has provided notice to Gecamines that the order constitutes a force majeure under the agreement and that its obligations under the agreement are suspended," Katanga said, referring to a clause in contracts that allows certain terms to be ignored because of unavoidable circumstances.
Prosecutors in Congo are investigating a 200-million-euro ($219 million) line of credit issued to Gecamines by a company owned by Israeli billionaire Dan Gertler, who is under U.S. sanctions.
Katanga also said it would also delay the commissioning of its acid plant to the second half of the year due to delays caused by the coronavirus outbreak. The previous target had been the first half of 2020.
KCC, which is 75%-owned by Katanga, produced 234,500 tonnes of copper and 17,100 tonnes of cobalt last year. It is an important growth project for Swiss-based Glencore, and the construction of a new acid plant would help cut costs at the operation.
($1 = 0.9125 euros)
(Reporting by Zandi Shabalala; Editing by Pravin Char)
