MINING NEWS including in collaboration with Raia Mutumboki armed groups .
· Gold from Shabunda ' s boom was sold on to a gold trading house in Bukavu that then sold it to their sister company , Alfa Gold Corp DMCC , in Dubai . Neither rm carried out supply chain due diligence to international standards , which would have revealed that the gold had been obtained in direct contravention of Congolese law and UAE Guidelines . Alfa Gold Corp DMCC has a wholly owned UK subsidiary registered in London ' s Hatton Garden jewellery area . Alfa Gold in Dubai and London did not respond to request for comment .
· Documents show that a French citizen Frank Menard , who worked for Kun Hou Mining , is deeply implicated in the company ' s wrongdoing . Raia Mutomboki armed groups wrote to Menard in February 2015 to thank him for the two AK-47 assault ri es and $ 4,000 . Menard also signed an official document con rming the sale of Kun Hou ' s gold to Alfa Gold ' s Congolese office . Global Witness ' attempts to contact Franck Menard were unsuccessful .
In recent years there have been signi cant international efforts to tackle the link between violent con ict , human rights abuses and the minerals trade in Congo and elsewhere including international supply chain guidance set out by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development ( OECD ) ve years ago , which has been a legal requirement in Congo since 2012 . �e US also passed a law and most recently industry supply chain guidelines based on the OECD standard were agreed in China . �e Chinese guidelines set a precedent for Chinese companies to recognise and reduce supply chain risks and if adhered to should allow companies sourcing minerals from high-risk areas to do so responsibly . Kun Hu Mining refused to comment in response to three requests from Global Witness . SAESSCAM have strongly denied that its agents collaborated with armed groups .
Global Witness .
Innovative technologies fuel the mining industry
New advances in technologies and equipment are quickly contributing to the performance and management of the mining industry . It is especially apparent in open pit or surface coal mines where the objective is to remove an abundance of material as quickly and safely as possible . Improvements in equipment design can signi cantly increase productivity , and are key factors to the safety of miners . On board machine guidance systems are playing a major role by delivering realtime information that can be used to monitor ore bodies , bench height , cycle times and volume of material cut and lled . Mine planners can also use these systems to map mines , create terrain models , and locate machine position , as well as track volume and productivity with absolute precision . �e productions of monitoring tools are just as signi cant . �ey provide site planners with dragline information , such as individual bucket loads , and dump locations . By observing the performance and productivity they can decrease operating costs and best utilize dragline output . In cab displays are making it easier for dragline operators to extract coal helping them move material accurately by showing the position of the buck and tub relative to the design plan . Machine health data is also available in the cab , so operators can identify potential problems and act quickly to prevent failures . Top priority in all mining situations is safety . New technologies are producing machines that include in-cab digital displays of avoidance zones and surfaces , in addition to turning out tools that can alert workers to hazardous situations before accidents can happen . �e skills and knowledge required in the mining industry has changed drastically in view of these developments and they continue to progress through the many challenges facing the industry .
FMDZ | May - June 2016 | Page07