Post #404

A Terrible Christmas Gift 🇨🇩The Congo dips into the pockets of artisanal miners 🌐 The DRC government seems far more concerned about leaking revenues than about the M23 problem in the east. Having barely finished the saga of the cobalt export ban, the Congolese authorities moved on December 19 to ban processing units from accepting copper and cobalt from artisanal miners. ⚙️ These efforts are part of an old government strategy. Back in 2019, the state created a special company, Entreprise Générale du Cobalt (EGC), granting it a monopoly on purchasing cobalt from artisanal miners. Yet from its creation until now, EGC has managed to collect only about 1,000 tonnes of cobalt — some 20% of their annual production. 🔧 The purpose of the latest decision is obvious: to fix this imbalance. With plants and marketers no longer allowed to buy directly, miners will have no option to sell their ore to the nearest facility. The only way to get paid will be through EGC. 🔽 One might hope that this would finally put an end to child labor and the endless casualties resulting from poor safety conditions at cobalt and copper sites. But today it looks more like the government will simply pocket part of the revenue, while the citizens lose the already meager incomes they earned from artisanal mining. ➡️ Follow to stay informed - @devilsbelow