Page 48 - Apmor 2018

mining human rights

Protecting Livelihoods is Key to Mining

the DRC’s Riches By Nelson Alusala

he Democratic Republic of the Congo of soil in search of minerals. They sell these skill passed down through the generations.
(DRC) has the potential to become for a living, or simply exchange them for rare It is not considered a crime. Any regulations
TAfrica’s richest economy, going by the commodities such as salt, sugar and cooking or policies that do not take into account
quantities of its natural resources. At the centre oil. community views, and which impose conditions
of the riches are over 80 million hectares of In an effort to ensure that the minerals not akin to their traditions, are deemed an
arable land and over 1 100 types of minerals don’t finance the activities of armed groups affront to their welfare against which they
and precious metals. that infest mining areas, the government will defend themselves. According to these
and international mining stakeholders have communities, they are hardly consulted during
But despite the DRC’s wealth, the tried putting in place several regulations. decision-making processes and government
livelihoods of ordinary citizens These include the Dodd-Frank act and has misunderstood them.
remain dismal. With barely any mineral certification schemes like the Great Secondly, informal miners feel left out of the
government structures in some of Lakes Regional Initiative against the Illegal mainstream government-controlled mineral
the country’s remote communities, Exploitation of Natural Resources (RINR). supply chain and so have developed their own
parallel ‘supply chain’. It starts with diggers
Another traceability and due diligence scheme
people have learnt to fend for is the Industrial Technology Research Institute (creuseurs) who excavate the ore using simple
themselves. The country’s human Tin Supply Chain Initiative (iTSCi). tools, often in water-filled pits or rivers. These
development index dropped These processes, while pivotal in the are the artisanal ‘mines’. Then come the
steadily from 105th in 1980 to sanitisation of mines, are facing considerable middlemen (négociants), who purchase the
176th out of 188 in 2014. challenges as far as artisanal mining is minerals at the ‘mines’ usually at a negotiated
concerned. price, or exchange them for goods or food
items. Middlemen transfer minerals to nearby
And with election uncertainties this year, the Firstly, the communities tend to perceive trading centres (comptoirs), or smuggle them
general situation in the country could worsen, (government) regulations - which are across the porous borders to neighbouring
according to the African Economic Outlook. often devoid of alternatives for sustainable countries where they are sold to international
Research by the Institute for Security Studies communal survival - as interference with traders.
(ISS) among the mining communities in South their source of livelihood. As one community
Kivu reveals critical issues at the centre of the elder in Kamituga stated, mining to them
economic well-being of such people. These is as pastoralism and farming are to some This informal supply chain is fraught
small-scale or informal miners live in villages, communities in other parts of the DRC and with insecurity. Rebel groups and
most of them hardly accessible. Their daily Africa. militias intent on financing their
occupation entails sifting through mounds In some cases, artisanal mining is an ancestral
activities from mining often stage
illegal roadblocks from where they
Mining communities in South Kivu DRC tax the middlemen. In some cases,
communities voluntarily cede
part of their minerals to militias
in exchange for protection against
attacks from external armed
groups.

Those involved in informal mining often have
to pay bribes to government officials and the
Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of
the Congo (FARDC), deployed to combat illegal
mining.
Generally attempts by government to disrupt
the informal mineral trade are met with armed
violence and resistance from mainly Mai-Mai
militias and rebels who attack mainstream

48 | AFRICAN POWER Mining & Oil Review Vol 21, Issue 20, 2017