Freeport-McMoRan, the US copper and gold miner is locked in a standoff with the Democratic Republic of Congo over its rights to one of the world’s richest untapped copper and cobalt deposits.

The company, which has invested nearly $2bn bringing the Tenke Fungurume mine in Congo’s southern Katanga province to production, has been given until Monday to resolve a long-standing dispute over the terms of its licence, or risk losing it.