Who to Address an LOI or ICPO To: A Copper Buyer's Guide

An LOI or ICPO goes to a company. Not to a person on WhatsApp, not to "Dear Seller", and not to whoever forwarded you the offer. You address it to the seller's full registered legal name, at its registered address, for the attention of a named person who can sign for that company. If you cannot fill in those three things, you are not ready to send it.

This sounds basic. But many copper LOIs that move around the market are addressed to a mandate's trading name, or to a company that does not hold the goods, or to nobody at all. Then the buyer wonders why nothing serious comes back.

Why the addressee matters

An LOI (letter of intent) or ICPO (irrevocable corporate purchase order) is the buyer saying: we want this product, on these terms, and we are ready to move to contract. On its own it is usually not the contract. The SPA is. But the LOI or ICPO fixes who the parties will be. If it names the wrong company, everything after it sits on the wrong base.

When the addressee is vague, a few things go wrong:

• The document travels. A letter addressed "To whom it may concern" can be forwarded to ten mandates and shown around as proof of a "hot buyer". Your company name ends up in groups you have never heard of.
• You cannot check anything. If no registered company is named, there is nothing to look up.
• The reply comes from someone else. You send an ICPO meant for Company A and get an FCO back from Company B in another country. Now you do not know who you are dealing with.

What to put on the letter

Use the seller's details as they appear on the company registry, not as they appear in an email signature. A practical layout:

• To: full legal name, with the suffix (Ltd, SARL, SA, LLC, (Pty) Ltd)
• Registration number and the country of registration
• Registered address. Not a hotel, not a Gmail address.
• Attention: the name and job title of the person who will sign, usually a director
• Reference: the offer or FCO number you are replying to, if there is one
• The deal: product and specification, quantity, Incoterm and named place, price basis, payment instrument
• Validity: how many days the letter stays open
• Your side: your own company details in the same format, signed by someone who can commit your company

The name must match the registry record exactly. For a Zambian company that means PACRA. For a Congolese company it is the RCCM. For a UK company it is Companies House. "Copper Mining Ltd" and "Copper Mining Company Ltd" can be two unrelated businesses, and one of them may not exist.

Check who signs on their side too. The person who will sign the FCO and SPA should be a director on the registry, or hold a written power of attorney or board resolution from the company. A common pattern in bad deals is an FCO signed by an "export director" who is not on the registry and has no provable link to the company. Ask for the POA. If they will not share it, that tells you something.

Seller, mandate or intermediary

This is where most of the confusion sits. In African copper you rarely speak to the seller first. You speak to a broker, who speaks to a mandate, who says they "represent" the seller. See mandate chains for how these chains form.

The rule is simple: address the LOI or ICPO to the company that will sign the SPA and issue the invoice. That is the seller. A broker or mandate can carry the document. They are not the addressee unless they are the seller on the contract.

If a mandate says "address it to me and I will pass it on", ask why. There can be fair reasons. Some sellers do not want their name shared before an NCNDA is in place. The fix is to sign the NCNDA first, then get the seller's name, then send the letter. It is not to send an open letter into the chain and hope.

If the intermediary is buying the goods and reselling them to you, then they are the seller and the letter goes to them. Make sure they can show title or a written right to sell. A "supply agreement" with somebody else, which you are not allowed to see, is not enough.

What a real seller sends back

A real seller treats your LOI or ICPO as the start of a contract, so the reply looks like one. Typically you get:

• An FCO (full corporate offer) on the seller's letterhead, addressed to your company by its legal name, signed by a named signatory, with a reference number and a validity date.
• A KYC request. A serious producer or trader will want your certificate of incorporation, director IDs and proof of address before they commit tonnage. That is a good sign, not a nuisance.
• Questions about the deal. Real sellers often push back on details: monthly tonnage, loading point, inspection company, first shipment size.
• A draft SPA, sometimes straight away if the terms are already clear.

Warning signs in the reply:

• The FCO is addressed "To Buyer", or to the mandate, not to your company.
• The seller name on the FCO is not the name you were given, or there is no registration number.
• It asks for money first: a "registration fee", "document legalisation", or a test cargo paid in advance. Read upfront fee scams and the test-and-pay scam.
• A full pack arrives within minutes: SKR, inspection report, certificate of origin, all dated and stamped. Real cargo takes time to allocate and check. A ready-made pack is often recycled.
• The signatory cannot be linked to the company on the registry, and nobody can show a POA.

A short example. A buyer sends an ICPO for 500 tonnes a month of Grade A cathode, addressed to a Lubumbashi trading company by its RCCM name. The reply comes from a different company in Dubai, signed by someone with a Gmail address, asking for a fee to "reserve allocation". The buyer did nothing wrong in the ICPO. The reply alone tells him to stop.

Checklist before you send

• I have the seller's full legal name and registration number.
• I have looked it up on the official registry and the name matches exactly.
• The person I am addressing is a director or holds a POA.
• An NCNDA is signed if brokers are in the chain.
• My letter has a reference number, a validity date and my full company details.
• I am sending it by email from my company domain, not only as a WhatsApp photo.
• I know what reply I expect: an FCO addressed to my company, or a KYC request.

For more on checking the other side, see how to verify a copper seller.

How Copper Supply helps

On Copper Supply every member passes an ID check before they can message anyone, and companies can be checked against their official registry, so you know who you are addressing before you write the letter. Deal rooms hold the NCNDA, LOI/ICPO, offers, SPA, IMFPA and signatures in one place, with the parties who are actually in the deal. If an FCO comes back with an SKR, COA, certificate of origin or bank letter attached, you can run it through the free red-flag pre-check at https://copper.supply/check, and have our compliance team review the full set before money moves (https://copper.supply/check#expert). Brokers who bring buyer and seller together are protected on the platform for 2 years. Copper Supply never holds trade money and takes no commission. You can post a buying requirement or offer for free at https://copper.supply/app/post.