The President of the Senate, Alexis Thambwe Mwamba has just been informed of the projects led by the province of Lualaba around artisanal mining. It was during a hearing he granted Governor Richard Muyej on Monday, September 23, 2019 at his office in Kinshasa.

According to the official report, the discussions focused on the sensitive issues of artisanal mining in this part of the country, which has one of the world’s largest cobalt reserves in its basement.

« We have more than 150,000 miners, many of whom come from the neighbouring province. This requires good supervision and the conversion strategy of many of them. There is not only artisanal mining, they can also farm, » said Governor Richard Muyej.

Moreover, the ongoing reform process to clean up this artisanal mining operation was also mentioned by both authorities.

« We are in the process of developing a trading centre. We have obtained from the central government some mining sites for artisanal miners. We have initiated a discovery prospecting program. It takes resources. We’re approaching the private investigators. We would like, once and for all, to clean up this artisanal mining area and for the gains to be not only for the end users but also for the miners, » said the Governor of Lualaba.

Nadine FULA