conflict-free mining in Eastern Congo - Portraits of miners

The submitted series shows portraits of miners in Eastern Congo.

Mineral-Trade in this region has been singled out as a source of finance for armed conflict. An initiative made up of the industry, NGOs, international and national government organisations, has launched a pilot project, that is set to break up that link. The Dutch social enterprise „Fairphone“ wants to use the tin in its first telephone from there, Motorola and other big players in the industry are also taking part. While the main objective is to guarantee that the tin-ore is produced „conflict-free“, working conditions remain an issue.

Eastern Congo has been affected by violence since the 1990s. One of the key reasons for the ungoing conflict is the fact that region is extremely valuable from an economic standpoint, due to its oil reserves, gold, tin, coltan and cassiterite – metals used to make mobile phones, for which both Rwanda and Uganda have fought in the past.

Under the Conflict Free Tin Initiative over 200 tones of tin ore worth around $1.7 million have already been sold to the Malaysia Smelting Corporation from the Kalimbi Mine in South Kivu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The CFTI ensures that each mined ore receives a plastic tag with a bar core that corresponds to a certification document, so that the minerals extracted from it can be exported legally. Out of the around 900 mines located in South Kivu, Kalimbi remains currently the only one which has internationally recognized traceability. A multi-stakeholder team, which included representatives of the DRC Government, the United Nations, the German Geological Service (BGR), the local project manager of the ITRI Tin Supply Chain Initiative (iTSCi), representatives of local business and civil society, validated Kalimbi as a conflict-free mine. The Congolese government is seeking to similarly tag other mines in the upcoming months.

As a result of the crackdown brought by the Dodd Frank Act, local prices collapsed by a factor of 6 to less than $1 a kilogram, while the only remaining buyers were Chinese exporters and smugglers. Shortly after the introduction of the conflict-free certification system at the Kalimbi mine, the price has returned to $3.5 per kilogram and more than 3,300 kg have been tagged. Currently, around 900 miners work at Kalimbi and have more than doubled their earnings to $4-$6 per kg from $2/kg. About 900 miners work under hard conditions in the mines of Kalimbi.