Abu Dhabi’s IRH explores investing in Alphamin’s Congo tin mines
Alphamin’s tin projects are in North Kivu province, which has been wracked by conflict for three decades.
Children as young as 11, used to work at Congo’s illegal mines. Courtesy of ENOUGH Project.
Latest research by the ENOUGH Project, an anti-genocide campaign group, shows that Congolese warlords have lost their grip on most of the country’s mines, almost putting an end to a long-era of major abuses in the African country and surrounding areas.
According to the report, an US law that came into force last week demanding companies to disclose whether their products contain so-called “conflict minerals,” and efforts by technology firms, have helped limit exports from Africa for consumer electronics.
Tin, tantalum and tungsten, used to make computers, smart phones, and tablets, used to generate $185m a year for armed groups. Now, about two-thirds of mines formerly controlled by warlords “are part of peaceful supply chains,” says ENOUGH Project.
“Our research found that electronics companies are expanding their responsible minerals sourcing from Congo, and Congolese miners are now able to earn 40% more from those mines,” says senior policy analyst, Sasha Lezhnev.
Artisanal mining of gold, however, is believed to continue funding army commanders, it adds.
The ENOUGH Project’s report said the results exposed in the study were the result of five months of field research.
6 Comments
Johnnycongo
Looking forward to more healthy business and social development in central Africa regions now, and fewer manipulated travel warnings or exploitive and excluding international actions.
daddy
we can hope it gonna get much better for peace improvement.
chuckblakeman
This is a propaganda report by Enough Project and Sasha Lezhnev, to attempt to rebuild their credibility on this issue after a disastrous four years in DR Congo related to this law. The real news is that Enough Project has blood on their hands and should be held accountable for terrible things that have happened in the Congo. I have repeatedly challenged them to debate me, or anyone else in public on this issue, and they won’t do it, because they have no defense for their actions. Instead they hide behind innacurate press reports like this one.
The facts are that Dodd-Frank took an already poor country and made it the single poorest country on earth in the space of two years, creating a de facto embargo of 95% of minerals coming out of all of central Africa (UN Panel of Experts), not just DR Congo. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/08/opinion/how-congress-devastated-congo.html?_r=0
It caused 10 million innocent people and their families to lose their meager livelihoods and to be plunged in to utter destitution (UN Panel of Experts).
http://sfbayview.com/2011/congo-lets-be-frank-about-dodd-frank/
http://conflictminerals.org/2011/11/07/congo-week-showcases-conflict-minerals-debate/
While this was going on Sasha Lezhnev himself recommend to a Congolese chief over the phone that since no legitimate source was available for selling their minerals, that they should sell to the Chinese (I was on the phone for that conversation). For over a year and half, Enough Project simply denied the embargo even exists, in the face of all the facts, told Chiefs to sell to a country with one of the worst human rights violations, because they were the only ones still buying.
And in classic colonialist fashion, they never once talked to the thousands of miners themselves to ask what would help them. http://bit.ly/1lsQf8M and http://bit.ly/Uzdpkp – Like all colonialist westerners, Enough Project knew better what would help them and didn’t need their input.
And now they are taking credit for the militia’s influence in mining being reduced? This is consistent with their self-aggrandizement and denial of the facts. For the last four years, scores of people have said multiple times that the same thing would get the militia out of the Congolese tantalum mines that got them out of the the “blood diamond” mines – armies going in and clearing them out –
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-130269/British-troops-withdraw-Sierra-Leone.html and http://chuckb.me/xmF
Here is just one of many prophetic statements to that effect: “The solution is simple. The militias are small, rag-tag, poorly organized, poorly led thugs with no significant weaponry. They could be over run in a few days of concerted effort.” http://chuckb.me/xmF
And that is exactly what happened in the DR Congo. An international force went in and cleared out the Congolese militia, and Dodd-Frank had nothing to do with it – http://bit.ly/1joDgRj
The Kimberley Project had no impact on getting militia our of the diamond mines in Sierra Leone, and Dodd-Frank had no impact on getting them out of the tantalum mines of DR Congo. All they did was make life worse for innocent people. In both cases it took men pointing guns at men to get them to move on. Enough Project and Dodd-Frank created four years of utter destitution and increased terrorism, and now, after the Intervention Brigade has cleared out the militia, Enough Project had the gall to pat themselves on the back and say their colonialist legislation was the reason.
As Eric Kajemba, leader of a Congolese civil society group said, “If the advocacy groups aren’t speaking for the people of eastern Congo, whom are they speaking for?” It is clear now – they are speaking for themselves. We’ve all had enough
from Enough Project.
Michael Allan McCrae
Thanks for the thoughtful comments, Chuck. You added to the piece.
Mark Patzelt
I totally agree with Chuck. We have been running a mineral processing operation in Goma for many years and if the population was suffering already then things have become much, much worse. Oh yes, the warlords have lost their grip on the mining operations but only because there are non to speak off left. Whatever is produced today is smuggled accross the border to Rwanda and everybody in this business knows how it is done and who the main players are. To my knowledge as of today there is only 1 mining operation in Masisi, North Kivu, DRC, that has been certified by one of the parasitic organisations (ITRI, PACT, BSP, any many more) currently lined up to make a killing on selling “conflict free” certificates. In the meantime you can buy a ITRI/iTSCi tag in Rwanda for 1 USD. Export of minerals has been the only source of income for millions of locals in the region and by creating the conflict mineral scham this fairly flourishing and official business, allowing the government to earn money in the process. Today only thugs and thieves are making money, so where is the gain? The killings go on as usual as millions of guns have been sold to the region. There is no military solution to this problem. It can only be reached by improving the economic conditions on the ground. And besides all this discussion about certification: the US companies consuming Tungsten have informed their suppliers worldwide already end of 2012 that they will no longer accept African material, certified or not because they will have to be audited if they use African tungsten. Wolfram AG from Austria pulled out completely by the end of 2012 and in 2013 Xiamen as the biggest consumer of African tungsten followed. No more customers. So if Enough and all the other NGOs (of course all noble and non profit) are celebrating a “victory”, what exactly are they looking at?
Michael Allan McCrae
Nice discussion Mark. Thanks for weighing in.