ZIMBABWEAN businessman Billy Rautenbach has been removed as chief executive of the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s mining giant Gecamines, his spokeswoman said on Tuesday. Rautenbach had been in talks with Gecamines and other parties after the country’s mining ministry revoked a joint venture between the state-owned company and Rautenbach’s firm, Ridgepoint Overseas Development. He was challenging the validity of the March 14 ministerial decree which reverted all assets under the joint venture, known as the Central Mining Group back to Gecamines. She said the fate of Rautenbach’s mineral interests in the Congo is unclear at the moment.