COUNTRY IN FOCUS •

Photo created by www . slon . pics - www . freepik . com

The Democratic Republic of the Congo had a busy year in 2021 advancing their mining sector , ranging from legislation to the development of new projects , writes Dr Nicolaas C Steenkamp .

The provincial governments of a number of provinces , such as Kivu , Tanganyika , Haut-Lomami , Laulaba and Haut-Katanga introduced new legislation aimed at modernising the mining sector . The two main projects that were tackled were : the establishment of new trade centres that would be responsible for the purchase of the bulk of the artisanal and small-scale mining ( ASM ) ores and the introduction of more stringent Environmental , Social and Corporate Governance ( ESG ) measures .

The establishment of the Enterprise Générale du Cobalt ( EGC ), was a major step forward in the formalisation of the ASM segment of the mining industry . The EGC holds the monopoly for the purchase , treatment , transformation , sale , and export of cobalt extracted by artisanal miners or artisanal mining companies in the DRC . This was accompanied by the establishment of buying centres , with the intention to ensure that the artisanal miners are also paid a fair market price for the ore delivered . The intention is then also to establish a mineral traceability platform , that would meet the requirements of the major ethical sourcing codes and guidelines being adopted by the global market in response to the rise of conflict minerals entering the market . The aim of the traceability platforms , or blockchains as they are more commonly referred to , would be to ensure that the provenance of the minerals could be established . The first segment targeted would be the vast coppercobalt ASM operations , to trace the movement of materials from pit to port . The main organisation for ethical sourcing in the DRC is the Fair Cobalt Alliance ( FCA ), consisting of a multi-stakeholder action platform , joined by various manufacturers that use cobalt in their products .

Copper remains the main source of income for the DRC government from the mining sector . The advent of the so-called second commodity crunch , where the demand cannot be met by post-Covid supplies , ignited renewed investment interest in copper mining operations in the DRC , propelled by the ever-increasing price of the orange metal . This is highlighted by reports such as BHP entering into discussion to buy into copper projects in the DRC to expand their global copper portfolio .

Although the cobalt sector remains the most lucrative of the minerals mined in the DRC , other minerals critical to the fourth industrial revolution and found in the DRC have attracted renewed attention . Access to information supplied by the historic Geological

Copper remains the main source of income for the DRC government from the mining sector .”