DRC: Chinese mining firms allegedly evade regulations & partner with local cooperatives for illegal gold mining in South Kivu
"Eastern DR Congo grapples with Chinese gold mining firms" 27 October 2024
Hundreds of foreign companies, most of them Chinese-owned, mine gold in the mineral-rich province often without permits and without declaring profits, according to local authorities...
In July, South Kivu governor Jean-Jacques Purusi suspended "illegal" mining activity in the province until companies could comply with Congolese mining laws...
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The president of an association for artisanal diggers, Felicien Mikalano, says local operators "don't have the same means" as Chinese firms, such as machinery and cash. Artisanal mining refers to small-scale mining, carried out by individuals without big machinery and not employed by big businesses. The practice is forbidden to foreigners by the country's mining code, but Chinese companies use local cooperatives as "partners" to circumvent the ban.
Around half of the Congolese cooperatives in the province are partnered with Chinese companies, according to the bureau of scientific and technical study (BEST), a Congolese NGO specialising in mining governance.
A few kilometres from Kamituga, at the end of a dirt track, access to a mine operated by one of these cooperatives is controlled at three checkpoints...Officials employed to control and inspect mining sites are also refused entry...
"These Chinese partners mine (and) the cooperatives sell the product over the counter. We don't know what percentage the Chinese take, or how much they produce"...
Gold bought in Kamituga is transported to South Kivu provincial capital Bukavu by "big traders" ...Once they arrive in the provincial capital, some declare only a fraction of their merchandise and sell the rest illegally in DRC, which is then transported by smugglers to Rwanda, according to BEST...
The channels used by the Chinese companies, none of which responded to AFP's requests for comment, remain unknown to the authorities and NGOs...