Mindouli

Mindouli is a regional center in western Pool Department, sitting on Route Nationale 1 (RN1) and the Congo-Ocean Railway between Pointe-Noire and Brazzaville. It has one of the country's longest mining histories: copper was worked at Mindouli by local metalworkers as far back as the 13th–19th centuries (archaeologists have found furnaces, smelting slag, and copper ingots at the site), and French colonial operations mined copper along a limestone escarpment behind the town from 1948 to 1960. The Mindouli-M'Fouati district also holds copper-zinc-lead ore bodies; a joint Congolese-Chinese venture (Société Lulu de Mine) began trial lead-zinc production there in 2017.

Mindouli sits on RN1 and the Pointe-Noire–Brazzaville railway line, connecting it to both cities.

• Historic copper and lead-zinc mining sites — The limestone escarpment behind the town holds centuries of mining history, from precolonial copper smelting to the colonial-era and modern lead-zinc workings.

• Kinkala — The departmental capital of Pool.
• Brazzaville — The national capital, reachable via RN1/rail.