Output restarted at SMB鈥檚 mining permit, comprising seven sites at Rubaya in east Congo, on Aug. 14 and the company began buying the minerals extracted by artisanal diggers on Tuesday, Freddy Nzonga, the company鈥檚 director of traceability, said by phone. Production was halted in May following allegations of smuggling and attacks by miners against SMB officials.
鈥淭he diggers returned to the sites鈥 last month, Nzonga said. Production is 鈥渟till quite modest,鈥 he said.
Production is 鈥渟till quite modest.”
Congo produces more than a quarter of the world鈥檚 tantalum, the scarce mineral that鈥檚 extracted from coltan ore and used in Apple iPhones and other smartphones as well as armaments and aviation components. Last year, SMB purchased about 1,000 metric tons of coltan ore extracted from its permit area, according to the company. That鈥檚 about about half of Congo鈥檚 total production, Mines Ministry data show.
Conflict free
SMB is controlled by the family of Edouard Mwangachuchu, a Congolese senator who has handed over day-to-day management to his brother, Ben. Its sites at Rubaya were declared 鈥済reen鈥 by Mines Minister Martin Kabwelulu in March 2012, among the first in the country to qualify as mines that don鈥檛 fund armed conflict in a region blighted by more than two decades of militia violence. Coltan produced there is tagged under a mineral-tracing system organized by the U.K.-based International Tin Association.
Its sites at Rubaya were declared 鈥済reen鈥.
SMB鈥檚 license is for industrialized mining, but in order to end a lengthy dispute with the local population, the company in 2013 signed an accord with a cooperative known as Cooperamma permitting its members to dig the ore from SMB鈥檚 permit areas as long as they sold it exclusively to them. SMB halted activity at its Rubaya sites — one is mechanized, while the others are exploited manually by Cooperamma — because of what it said was a breakdown in its agreement with the miners.
The 102-day suspension was the result of 鈥渞ecurrent participation by Cooperamma members in fraud鈥 and the cooperative鈥檚 refusal to implement upgraded traceability mechanisms, according to a May 2 letter sent by the company to Anselme Kitakya, the provincial minister of mines. The letter also cited armed assaults by miners on local police, security guards and SMB directors as reasons for the halt.
Status revoked
SMB ceased operations due to its 鈥渙bligation to take conservatory measures to preserve its green sites鈥 by strengthening security and improving traceability, according to the letter.
SMB ceased operations due to its 鈥渙bligation to take conservatory measures to preserve its green sites鈥.
Kabwelulu revoked the sites鈥 status in June, after violent clashes between Cooperamma members and security forces in the wake of SMB鈥檚 suspension of production, and forbade any resumption of mining.
Kitakya said Cooperamma doesn鈥檛 always deliver the ore to SMB, but he can鈥檛 measure how much is sold illegally elsewhere. The origin of the tension between the company and the cooperative is that the residents around Rubaya, who make up Cooperamma鈥檚 members, contest SMB鈥檚 ownership of the land being mined, he said in an interview on Aug. 13.
鈥淭he accusations are baseless,鈥 Cooperamma鈥檚 president, Robert Seninga, said by phone from Goma, the capital of North Kivu province where Rubaya is located. The cooperative 鈥渨orks in close collaboration鈥 with the state and SMB to snuff out fraud, said Seninga, who is also a provincial legislator.
The mines were revalidated as 鈥済reen鈥 on Aug. 2, after SMB and Cooperamma struck an updated agreement in June. The deal permits the cooperative鈥檚 members to continue digging for 15 months and reaffirms SMB鈥檚 monopoly on purchasing the ore, while committing both sides to tightening supply-chain traceability. North Kivu Governor Julien Paluku reopened the mine on Aug. 13.
(By William Clowes)
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