KINSHASA, June 28 (NNN-AGENCIES) — At least 41 miners have died after a part of a copper and cobalt mine collapsed in the Lualaba province in southeast Congo, the provincial governor said.
Richard Muyej, the governor of Lualaba district, blames the accident on “clandestine artisanal diggers who have flooded (the mine) and engaged in an anarchic exploitation”.
The accident happened in the KOV open-pit mine at the Kamoto Copper Company concession, and it is owned by Glencore, a multinational mining giant.
Glencore said in a statement that it had confirmed 19 fatalities so far and was assisting search and rescue operations by local authorities.
“The illegal artisanal miners were working two galleries in benches overlooking the extraction area. Two of these galleries caved in,” the company said.
Artisanal mining by independent workers using their own materials on the edge of commercial mine sites is a big problem across Africa.
The statement said KCC had observed a “growing presence” of illegal miners, with an average of 2,000 people daily sneaking onto its operating sites.
The rudimentary and often outdated practices employed by independent miners can compromise the safety of the mines, and accidents among them are common.
“KCC urges all illegal miners to cease from putting their lives at risk by trespassing on a major industrial site,” Glencore said.
Delphin Monga, provincial secretary of the UCDT union which represents KCC employees, said a crack in that part of the pit had been noticed on Wednesday. He said KCC had put up red warning signs, but the diggers had ignored them.
Illegal mining is common and frequently deadly in the DRC, where safety is often poor and risk-taking high.
The KOV mine, which spans a vast flat expanse on the outskirts of the city of Kolwezi near the Zambian border, is one of the largest high-grade copper assets in the world.
The collapse of a 250-metre wall inside the same pit killed seven mine employees in 2016.
Thousands of illegal miners operate in and around mines in southern Congo, which produce more than half of the world’s cobalt, a key component in electric car batteries.
Mine disasters in Africa have cost the lives of numerous miners, especially unauthorised artisanal miners who operate without safety standards or regulations.
At least nine illegal gold miners died in Zimbabwe when they were trapped in a mine last month.
Twenty-two died in a previous Zimbabwean gold-mine flood in February, and 14 tin miners were buried alive in Rwanda after heavy rains in January.
In February, about 20 people died when a truck carrying acid to Glencore’s Mutanda Mine in DRC collided with two other vehicles.
The DRC’s military deployed hundreds of soldiers last week to protect a copper and cobalt mine owned by China Molybdenum Co Ltd from illegal miners. — NNN-AGENCIES
