Mining’s old guard needs strong medicine
A new report details subpar investor returns in the mining industry over the last decade, particularly big cap diversified companies which have not adapted to new realities.
A report by the Agence France-Presse citing local authorities states that 24 people were killed by a landslide at the Ndiyo gold mine, located 40 kilometres from the town of Watsa in the northeastern Ituri province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
According to the AFP, the provincial minister of mining, Dieudonne Apasa, said that the incident took place on Saturday afternoon when the torrential rains that have been pouring over the area for weeks softened the terrain so much that it started to crumble.
Apasa said that two miners were rescued alive. Normally, these panners sell gold nuggets to local traders, who resell them to large foreign companies.
The news agency’s report states that a similar disaster killed 31 people just two months ago at an artisanal mine in Maniema, in the central-east region, while storm-caused landslides over the capital Kinshasa were blamed for at least 41 deaths at the end of November.
