[ad_1]
* Tens of thousands of miners enter the concessions
* Congo cobalt is essential to the electric vehicle revolution
* Congo says deployment of the army to prevent fatal accidents
* GRAPHIC-Cobalt 2018 Mining Production: https://tmsnrt.rs/2NQJmFg
By Aaron Ross
DAKAR, July 17 (Reuters) – A Congolese army officer arrived in Kafwaya village in June and warned residents not to encroach on a major copper and cobalt mine in China. At night falling about a week later, the soldiers settled down.
"They have not told anyone," said Fabien Ilunga, a Kafwaya official who is home to thousands of miners living from nearby mining resources. "The army started to burn houses in tarpaulin."
The deployment of soldiers to rid the mining concessions of tens of thousands of illegal and informal miners is a new approach by the authorities of the Democratic Republic of Congo, who have been fighting the problem for decades.
Years of negotiations, alternative employment programs and sporadic police interventions have not solved the problem, which has long been a concern for mining companies that exploit some of the wealthiest deposits. in the world.
But using soldiers to prevent illegal miners from entering large compounds is likely to be a long and potentially violent battle, badysts said. The United Nations has often accused the Congolese army of violations of human rights.
Technology giants and car manufacturers using Congolese cobalt in smartphones and electric cars are already trying to clean up their supply chains after reports of child labor in informal mines in Congo. Any prolonged violence between soldiers and miners could again destabilize investors.
"Any additional involvement of state security forces in mine sites will increase minors' exposure to social risks, which is probably already the biggest risk they face," Indigo Ellis said. , badyst in Africa of risk consulting firm Verisk Maplecroft.
Congolese authorities have stated that informal miners endanger the country 's interests and that army deployments also aimed to prevent the type of accident that killed 43 illegal miners during a project. at Glencore on June 27th.
TORCH HOUSES
Since the deployment of the army in southeastern Congo, thousands of illegal diggers have been driven out of the Glencore Kamoto Copper Company (KCC) mine and China's Tenke Fungurume (TFM) mine. Molybdenum.
In the case of Kafwaya, in the 1,800 km 2 TFM concession of Chinese Molybdenum, local activists said a few days after the army's initial warning, on 13 June, that soldiers had set fire to some people. Market stalls and set up a camp nearby.
Less than a week later, soldiers burned dozens of homes belonging to miners and farmers, and ransacked a school, residents said and a group of local activists.
They claimed that the fires burned a 3-year-old girl and a 14-month-old boy who were caught in their homes.
General John Numbi, who led the operation, denied that anyone was injured. When asked later about the specific allegations, he sent a text message that simply said, "Let's be serious."
China Molybdenum declined to comment. Kasongo Bin Nbador, deputy managing director of TFM, said at a conference last week that the mine had asked the government to do more to get the concession, but had not asked for the deployment of the company. 39; army.
He added that the mine had been invaded and that illegal miners had brutalized TFM employees, damaged machinery and made access to parts of the concession difficult.
"Once you have metals that require a significant investment, you can not encourage artisbad mining," said Bin Nbador.
General Numbi is currently facing sanctions in the United States, the European Union and Switzerland for threatening violence against opposition politicians in 2016. He deny any wrongdoing.
STRATEGIC INTERESTS
The risk of ending up with Congolese cobalt extracted by children in dangerous conditions has already pushed some car companies to look for alternatives.
Tesla is trying to use more nickel, mainly from Indonesia, the Philippines, Russia and New Caledonia, and less cobalt in car batteries. Tesla says his next generation battery will not use cobalt at all.
At the same time, BMW announced that it would buy cobalt directly from the Australian and Moroccan mines.
General Motors said it did not buy cobalt directly and send questions to LG Chem, its battery supplier.
LG Chem said it was using blockchain technology in partnership with automakers Ford Motor Co. and Volkswagen, technology company IBM and Huayou Cobalt for the traceability of ethically sourced minerals, including cobalt.
Apple said that since 2016, its suppliers in the Congo had participated in external audits to make sure they were following a code of conduct. The US tech giant has abandoned two refiners and cobalt smelters last year.
But with 64 percent of global supplies of cobalt sourced from Congo in 2018, according to the United States Geological Survey, it will be difficult for companies to completely cut the country out of their supply chains. https://tmsnrt.rs/2NQJmFg
"In the short term, they know and agree that they will have to buy cobalt or products at least partly from the DRC," said Caspar Rawles, senior cobalt badyst at Benchmark Mineral Intelligence.
Glencore stated that its KCC concession did not require the army to intervene and that while the troops were operating around the mine, they had not entered the site. The army said it expelled 20,000 miners. The miners responded with a series of demonstrations in which stores were looted and at least 20 people arrested.
The Swiss-based commodity and mining company has referred Reuters a letter from its director general to Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi, urging Congolese forces to respect human rights and use as little force as possible.
IndustriALL, an international union, said its KCC affiliate had asked regional governor Richard Muyej to tackle the problem of illegal miners, but was opposed to sending the army.
"There are strategic interests of the country at stake," said General Numbi. "If investors complain … the government will take action (to deploy the army) when it decides that the police can not handle it."
MINING ALTERNATIVES
Industrial copper and cobalt mines in southeastern Congo are far from the conflict zones in the east of the country where gold, tin, tantalum and copper mines are found. tungsten controlled by militias and commanders of the army.
These areas of eastern Congo have already been targeted by US legislation to prevent so-called conflict minerals from being found in products such as smartphones.
According to badysts, clashes between the army and miners in the copper belt where TFM and KCC are located could also destabilize investors already worried about reports of child labor and unsafe conditions in the area. artisbad mines.
"It's not entirely clear if you can operate a responsible mine in the DRC, I really do not know if you can do it," said a mining investor, who requested anonymity to not be named for fear of the authorities.
Clashes earlier this year between police and miners who threw stones in the southern province of Lualaba, where TFM and KCC are located, killed three officers, convincing the authorities that it was necessary to set up better armed forces to attack them.
Local police and private contractors believed to secure the mines are often bought by miners and illegal traders, according to badysts, thus reinforcing the case for an intervention by the army.
The government has sought to convince informal miners to leave the sector for agriculture, and mining companies have also proposed alternatives.
Glencore, for example, supports cooperatives in agriculture, welding, sewing and carpentry.
But informal miners say they earn less as much from these activities and often refuse industrial mines claiming the richest concessions, sometimes on land where their families have been living for generations.
It is estimated that 170,000 artisbad miners operate in Lualaba and their numbers appear to be increasing. Often equipped only with shovels, buckets and straw bags, they sink into the depths in search of ore. Accidents are common.
"There are collapses all the time on many of these sites," said a manager of an industrial mine in Congo. "Wherever there is cobalt in the DRC, there will be artisbad miners."
In the absence of long-term economic alternatives for illegal miners, they are likely to return to the concessions, pushing soldiers to resort to ever more stringent measures, said a mining consultant, who required anonymity.
"Moving craftsmen is like a mole shot," he said. "What they will end up doing is simply brutalizing the miners to make them too scared to come back."
(Other reports from Fiston Mahamba in Goma, Ben Klayman in Detroit, Barbara Lewis and Zandi Shabalala in London, Stephen Nellis and Alexandria Sage in San Francisco, Heekyong Yang in Seoul and Joe Bavier in Johannesburg, edited by Alexandra Zavis and David Clarke)
Source link
