Congo’s Mines Minister calls for “genuine clean up” of gold sector following Global Witness investigation into chaotic boom in country’s east

Global Witness welcomes Minister’s comments and calls for action from South Kivu governor    

The Democratic Republic of Congo’s Minister of Mines has called for a thorough ‘clean up’ of the chaotic artisanal mining sector in the eastern province of South Kivu. The move follows recent work by Global Witness and by Congolese civil society organisations to expose links between armed groups, the artisanal gold trade and some public officials in the South Kivu territory of Shabunda.

The Minister also calls for the prosecution of provincial mining officials who are found to have acted illegally and puts new restrictions on a Chinese-owned company accused of illegal operations. His comments come in a letter sent to the Governor of South Kivu which recognises “major problems” impacting “mineral supply chains causing fraud and smuggling of minerals” across the province particularly in Shabunda.

In July the Global Witness investigation River of Gold revealed how armed groups received gifts of arms and cash from a private Chinese mining company and made up to $25,000 per month extorted from local miners during a recent two-year gold boom in Shabunda territory. The report also revealed that in just one year, up to $17 million of gold produced by Kun Hou Mining, the Chinese-owned company, went missing and was likely smuggled out of Congo into international supply chains. Congolese civil society groups have raised the alarm about chaos in Shabunda since 2014.

The South Kivu Governor and provincial mining authorities have so far let Kun Hou mining continue to operate freely. Shortly after the publication of Global Witness’s report South Kivu’s Mines Minister issued a highly restrictive new regulation which prohibits civil society’s access to mine sites without special consent.  The national Mines Minister has now said this restriction on civil society should be lifted.

In the 24 August letter the Minister, Martin Kabwelulu, also:

• Commits to carrying out an independent research mission to Shabunda to look into the evidence of wrongdoing exposed by Global Witness;
  
• Prohibits Kun Hou Mining from signing new contracts with mining cooperatives and from buying and selling gold – going further than an October 2015 instruction to the South Kivu Governor to suspend Kun Hou’s activities;
  
• Includes a rare acknowledgment that high ranking members of the Congolese army are preying on the mining sector in South Kivu and asks Congo’s Defence Minister to remove them;
  
• Calls for mixed teams to inspect mine sites and new information on mine sites, including the presence of children and pregnant women, to be passed regularly to his office.
  

“We know that Kun Hou are still present in Shabunda territory and have struck up a new deal with at least one mining cooperative in neighbouring Fizi territory”, said Pickles. “Given the company’s track record it’s unclear why, almost a year after the national minister instructed that Kun Hou Mining be suspended, South Kivu’s Governor has allowed the company to continue its operations and even to expand them”.  

In contrast to the Minister’s public intervention, Dubai’s mineral supply chain regulator the DMCC (Dubai Multi Commodities Centre) has remained silent. Global Witness showed in July that 12kg of Kun Hou Mining’s gold from Shabunda was officially exported to Dubai-based Alfa Gold Corp. All of South Kivu’s official gold exports for 2014 and 2015 went to Dubai.

The Congolese government and the South Kivu authorities must ensure that companies in its gold sector adhere to these laws and standards to salvage the credibility of the province’s mineral sector and its supply chains.