DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC CONGO: Diamond mining town of Mbuj Mayi, is one example of the challenges facing a new government

Record ID: 732577

  • Title: DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC CONGO: Diamond mining town of Mbuj Mayi, is one example of the challenges facing a new government
  • Date: 26th July 2006
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF MIBA CONCESSION/ MINE CONVEYOR BELT MOVING / PEOPLE AT WORK
  • Embargoed: 10th August 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Industry
  • Reuters ID: LVADIXA5Y51GUD76LMLCHIR65K5P
  • Story Text: This is the lure of the Democratic Republic of Congo - diamonds by the dozen. But these diamonds, along with minerals including gold, copper, coal and oil, have caused bloodshed in the DRC ever since the arrival of Belgian colonists over a hundred years ago.
    The former colony's first democratic elections in 40 years are due to start in less than two weeks - and the problems within the mining industry provide one example of the challenges facing a new government.
    In Mbuji Mayi, a town of some 2.5 million people, locals will tell you there are diamonds everywhere. But the town that sprawls around a huge diamond concession is desperately poor, and most people are almost destitute.
    The town survives largely on money made from black market deals involving diamonds smuggled out of the enormous MIBA (Minere de Bakwanga) concession nearby.
    Outside MIBA's entrance, dealers can be seen buying diamonds from diggers operating on MIBA land. They get between 5 and 10 US dollars a carat. For many inhabitants of Mbuji Mayi, this is the only way to make any money at all and even then, few diggers make more than one US dollar per day, on average.
    MIBA was set up when Congo gained independence from Belgium, in 1960. Recent investment by foreign firms has seen production increase - from 5 million carats a year to 7.5 million carats, with future production expected to double output to 10 million carats a year. MIBA makes between 80 and 100 million US dollars from sales of its diamonds, with all output sold to two firms in Antwerp.
    The increase in production is thanks in part to a huge open-pit drag-line operation. The large bucket pulls up an average of 33 carats of diamonds a pull.
    MIBA officials say a peaceful election would further boost the mine's productivity.
    "The president who will win the elections will bring calm to the country and it will be good for MIBA and other Congolese companies, because if we have stability and calm, we'll be more reliable and we will get money from the bank to go forward," MIBA's General Director Gustave Luabeya said.
    But local residents say MIBA's profits should benefit the local community. Some have taken matters into their own hands and have started digging on concession land. MIBA has cracked down on illegal miners on its land near the new investments.
    "MIBA is a huge concession, about 40 square kilometres, and in that concession, we see some diggers who are trying to get in, but in the plant, it is not easy as we upgrade our security to avoid the diggers coming in," MIBA engineer Faustin Kalend said.
    But further afield, illegal mining is rife. Officials estimate that between five and ten thousand miners operate on concession land every night.
    "We are originally from this country, it's our right (to dig for diamonds). We come to dig here because MIBA is not giving us jobs and we need to work," one illegal digger, Delphin Shibango, said.
    The work is hard and dangerous, with deaths reported regularly.
    The problems evident in Mbuji-Mayi reflect problems across the country, with years of civil war interrupting formal mining operations in nearly every mining sector. Nearly four million people were killed before the war ended in 2003. Now, major mining firms are heading to the DRC, hoping to profit from the enormous mineral wealth kept off limits for years by fighting.
    Metal prices are near all-time highs, driven by huge building projects in China and India, and many believe the need for industrial metals on a grand scale is here to stay. And many companies regard the DRC as the last remaining place to find high-quality, large-scale deposits of minerals ranging from copper to oil.
    Most analysts believe that whoever wins the election, as long as the results are generally accepted, mining in the country will become more organised. Reverting to the disorganised, corrupt ways of state mining company Gecamines under former dictator Mobutu Sese Soko is not an option, nor is government interference, they feel. The Congo needs mining for jobs and investment as much as miners need the Congo.
    But whoever comes to power will need to make very sure that the local population benefits from the millions of dollars invested by foreign companies, and the billions of dollars in mineral sales. If not, people like the illegal miners seen being chased off concession land may make good governance of the large country impossible.
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