First Mining Drc-Zambia July/Aug 2019 First Mining DRC-ZAMBIA July-August 2019 digital | Page 5

NEWS
DR Congo raises the
stakes on illegal mining
A
Congolese army officer arrived
in Kafwaya village in June and
warned residents not to trespass
on a major Chinese copper and cobalt
mine next door. As night fell about a
week later soldiers moved in. Using soldiers to keep illegal miners
out of vast concessions is likely to
be protracted and potentially violent
analysts say. The United Nations has
accused the Congolese army of human
rights abuses.
“They didn’t say anything to anyone,”
said Fabien Ilunga, an official in Kafwaya,
home to thousands of miners eking out a
living illegally exploiting nearby mineral
resources. “The army started to burn
down tarpaulin houses.” Tech giants and automakers using
Congolese cobalt in smart phones and
electric cars are cleaning up supply
chains after reports of child labour at
informal mines in Congo. Any prolonged
violence between soldiers and miners
could unsettle investors again.
Deploying soldiers to clear thousands
of illegal informal miners from mining
concessions is a new approach by the
authorities in Democratic Republic of
Congo, wrestling with the problem for
decades.
Years of negotiations, alternative
employment programmes and sporadic
interventions by police all failed to
resolve the issue, long a concern for
mining companies exploiting some of the
world’s richest mineral deposits.
“Any further involvement of state security
forces on mine sites will increase miners’
social risk exposure, already probably
the biggest risk they face,” said Indigo
Ellis, Africa analyst for risk consultancy
Verisk Maplecroft.
Congolese authorities say informal
miners endanger the country’s interests
and the army deployments are meant to
prevent accidents such as one that killed
43 illegal miners at a Glencore project
on June 27.
HOMES TORCHED
Since the army deployed in south-eastern
Congo, thousands of illegal diggers have
been pushed off Glencore’s Kamoto
Copper Company (KCC) mine and China
Molybdenum’s Tenke Fungurume Mine
(TFM).
In the case of Kafwaya, in China
Molybdenum’s 1,800 square kilometre
TFM concession, local activists said a
few days after the army’s initial warning
on June 13, soldiers set market stalls
ablaze and put up camp nearby.
Less than a week later, soldiers torched
dozens of homes belonging to miners
and farmers and ransacked a school,
residents and a local activist group said.
They said the fires severely burned a
three-year-old girl and a 14-month-old
boy caught inside.
General John Numbi, who led the
operation, denied anyone was hurt.
Asked later about specific allegations,
he sent a text message that said: “Let’s
be serious.”
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