This article is about the tin mine. For the nearby village of Bisie, see Manoire .
Bisie, divided into Mpama North and Mpama South deposits,[1] is a tin deposit in the Walikale territory of the province of North Kivu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The mine was formerly an illegal source of an estimated 15,000 tons of tin, or 4% of global production.[2] In early 2018 artisanal mining activity has stopped, and Alphamin Resources Corp., an exploration company, based in Mauritius, is leading an exploration of the site.
Bisie mine was established after a hunter discovered cassiterite there,[when?] which led to a frenzy. Artisinal mining at Bisie began in 2003.[3]
Following the Second Congo War, Mai Mai-allied militia in were to form the 85th brigade of the national army, receive training and then fragment when they deployed throughout the country. The militia refused to cooperate, however, and since then they controls the production and transport of tin, and the economics of Bisie, and nearby Manoire village, under the supervision of Colonel Samy Matumo. The mine's estimated tin production has been as high $100 million a year. The militia extorted "taxes" on everything from entry to the mine, to mud hut for shelter $50 a month. They also collect sales taxes, $20 a week, from small peddlers
Tin was mined by hand through open-pit mining, and bags of tin that weighed 110 pounds or more were then dropped off at a central location, from which porters carried them on foot by individuals for over 30 miles, which typically took two days. When it arrived it was driven to the village of Kilambo, where it was loaded into Soviet-style cargo planes, flown to Goma, and sold to international dealers, such as Malaysia Smelting Corporation.
The militia controlled the entire vicinity of Bisie and allowed only those who paid the taxes. Mining and Processing Congo (MPC), a consortium of British and South African investors, bought mining rights for Bisie in 2006, but the militia thwarted their attempts to reach the area. They in the past have shot and injured people associated with the consortium. After they were forced to evacuate, MPC applied for Force Majeure, which was granted on 26 March 2009.
By July 2008, the mine was retaken by the DRC's military, but conditions under the FARDC were poor, with child labor and outbreaks of disease in the area.[4]
The mine was intimately linked to world markets. In October 2008 the prices of tin increased 37% with news of fighting in the region.[5] According to some observers, the failure to inaugurate legal forms of production indicated corruption at the regional and federal levels of the DRC.
In March 2009, the 85th FARDC Brigade was replaced by the 1st Brigade of ex-CNDP (Congrès National pour la Défense du Peuple) members; this was then renamed the 212th Brigade in September 2009.[6] On 9 September 2010, President Kabila banned on all artisanal mining in Walikale territory. Two days later, he suspended all mining and mineral exports from North Kivu, South Kivu and Maniema Provinces.[7]
This mining and export ban, together with the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and pressure from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), caused buyers to buy less at lower prices. The Dodd-Frank legislation requires US-listed companies who obtain minerals from the DRC and adjoining countries, to implement due diligence measures. This legislation served as a catalyst for other international and regional initiatives to increase the accountability of corporations who source minerals from the eastern DRC and the wider region.[6] The main buyers of cassiterite in the area, i.e. the Malaysian Smelting Corporation, various Chinese companies and Eurotrade International, boycotted Bisie ore, easy to identify due to its pink-red colour.[8]
Mineral production and trade slowed during Kabila's ban, but did not completely stop. Wimmer and Hilgert (2011)[6] presented satellite images which show continued artisanal mining at Bisie. They estimated that the actual mining area expanded by 0.74 ha during the ban, which was lifted 10 March 2011.[8]
By late May 2011, the DRC army completed its withdrawal from the Bisie tin mine.
Industrial mine (2011–present)
In August 2011, Alphamin Resources, a Canadian company, acquired a 70% interest in the Bisie Tin Project,[9] and acquired the remaining 30% of the project in July 2012.[10]
In 2012, the number of artisanal miners at the site had declined sharply, due in great part to the deep tunnels now needed to reach the ore. The Force Majeure was lifted at the Bisie Project in February 2012, and Alphamin Resources established a camp on the Bisie ridge and began exploratory drilling in July 2012.[11]
Artisanal mining continuing on a smaller scale alongside Alphamin's exploration. However, after members of an artisanal cooperative destroyed Alphamin's camp on 16 July 2014, the cooperative's activities on the site were suspended.[12] Alphamin rebuilt the camp and recommenced exploration campaign in September 2014.[13]
The Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is the state organisation responsible for defending the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The FARDC was rebuilt patchily as part of the peace process which followed the end of the Second Congo War in July 2003.
Coltan is a dull black metallic ore from which the elements niobium and tantalum are extracted. The niobium-dominant mineral in coltan is columbite, and the tantalum-dominant mineral is tantalite.
Cassiterite is a tin oxide mineral, SnO2. It is generally opaque, but it is translucent in thin crystals. Its luster and multiple crystal faces produce a desirable gem. Cassiterite was the chief tin ore throughout ancient history and remains the most important source of tin today.
North Kivu is a province bordering Lake Kivu in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. Its capital is Goma.
The mining industry of the Democratic Republic of the Congo produces copper, diamonds, tantalum, tin, gold, and more than 63% of global cobalt production. Minerals and petroleum are central to the DRC's economy, making up more than 95% of value of its exports.
The Kivu conflict began in 2004 in the eastern Congo as an armed conflict between the military of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC) and the Hutu Power group Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It has broadly consisted of three phases, the third of which is an ongoing conflict. Prior to March 2009, the main combatant group against the FARDC was the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP). Following the cessation of hostilities between these two forces, rebel Tutsi forces, formerly under the command of Laurent Nkunda, became the dominant opposition to the government forces.
Walikale Territory is a territory located within the Congolese province of North Kivu, in the eastern regions of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The headquarters are in the town of Walikale. The locality is situated between Bukavu and Lubutu on DR Congo National Road No. 3 in the valley of the river Lowa, 135 km to the west of Goma.
Blood in the Mobile is a 2010 documentary film by Danish film director Frank Piasecki Poulsen. The film addresses the issue of conflict minerals by examining illegal cassiterite mining in the North-Kivu province in eastern DR Congo. In particular, it focuses on the cassiterite mine in Bisie.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is a source and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to trafficking in persons, specifically conditions of forced labor and forced prostitution. The majority of this trafficking is internal, and much of it is perpetrated by armed groups and government forces outside government control within the DRC's unstable eastern provinces.
Army General Gabriel Amisi Kumba was Chief of Staff of the Forces Terrestres, the army of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Amisi was a former Forces armees Zairoises (FAZ) officer who was recruited into the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo (AFDL) in 1996. During the Second Congo War, Amisi was assistant chief of staff for logistics of the Rally for Congolese Democracy (RCD-G). This position was the origin of his nickname, as T-4 was the abbreviation for his position. He was implicated by Human Rights Watch in the execution of soldier Joe Lona Bifuko and in the torture of prisoners in the ANC military intelligence detention centre in Goma in 2001.
Walikale is a town in the North Kivu Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). It is the administrative center of the Walikale Territory.
The March 23 Movement, often abbreviated as M23 and also known as the Congolese Revolutionary Army, is a rebel military group that is for the most part formed of ethnic Tutsi. Based in eastern areas of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), it operates mainly in the province of North Kivu. The M23 rebellion of 2012 to 2013 against the DRC government led to the displacement of large numbers of people. On 20 November 2012, M23 took control of Goma, a provincial capital with a population of a million people, but it was requested to evacuate it by the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region because the DRC government had finally agreed to negotiate. In late 2012, Congolese troops, along with UN troops, retook control of Goma, and M23 announced a ceasefire and said that it wanted to resume peace talks.
The following lists events that happened during 2012 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The Twangiza-Namoya gold belt is a belt of gold deposits in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Artisanal working of alluvial deposits dates back to the 1920s. More systematic exploration and exploitation took place in the colonial era and continues up to the present, although civil war and militia attacks have periodically disrupted operations and have caused several changes of ownership of the concessions.
Twangiza Mine is an open pit gold mine in South Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) which started operations in 2012. Production has been disrupted by attacks from rebel militias.
The Société Minière et Industrielle du Kivu (Sominki) was a privately held mining company of Zaire. It operated gold and tin mines, mostly in South Kivu province, between 1974 and 1997. The acquisition of its mining assets by Banro Corporation of Canada was complicated by the First Congo War in 1996–1997, followed by expropriation of the mines by the new Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) government. Eventually Banro gained the right to exploit the gold mines.
Yusufu Eric Mboneza, more commonly called Yusuf Mboneza, is or was a Congolese military officer and rebel. During his career he served in the Rally for Congolese Democracy, the National Congress for the Defence of the People, the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and finally the March 23 Movement.
The Rubaya mines, also known as the Bibatama Mining Concession, is a series of coltan mining sites near the town of Rubaya in Masisi Territory, North Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Officially, the mining license is held by Société Minière de Bisunzu Sarl (SMB), associated with Congolese senator Edouard Mwangachuchu. Specific sites include Bibatama D2, Luwowo, Gakombe D4, Koyi, Mataba D2, Bundjali, and Bibatama D3.
Société Aurifère du Kivu et du Maniema, SARL (SAKIMA) is a Congolese state-owned mining company which holds interests in various gold and tin mines in the provinces of Maniema, North Kivu and South Kivu in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. The company's operations are based in the town of Kalima.
The Lueshe mine, or Lweshe mine, is a niobium mine located in Rutshuru Territory in North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The site is one of the most economically significant pyrochlore deposits in the world. The rare niobium mineral lueshite was discovered at the mine, and is named after it. The mine is frequently caught up in violence surrounding the Kivu conflict.
1 2 MSA Group (2014), Bisie Tin Project NI-43-101 Technical Report, "Archived copy"(PDF). Archived from the original(PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 13 April 2015.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
The Incredible Story of Conflict Mineral Mining in Images; Treehugger.com
Conflict mineral exploitation at Bisie, D.R. Congo, photography by Mark Craemer, 2008
The Congo's tin soldiers, Wells J. (2011); Thestar.com
Further reading
Nicholas Garrett; Sylvia Sergiou; Koen Vlassenroot, 'Negotiated Peace for Extortion: the case of Walikale territory in Eastern DR Congo,' Journal of Eastern African Studies, vol. 3, issue 1, 2009
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