DRC To Clear 2,000 Illegal Miners From Glencore Site

The army in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) plans to remove illegal miners from a Glencore-run copper and cobalt mine after they failed to comply with a deadline to leave.

The move comes following a landslide at Kamoto Copper Company (KCC) mine in which 43 people died.

Earlier in the week clashes between miners and police took place. The office of the provincial governor has since indicated that if necessary the police will call on the army to support the expulsion.

The army evicted thousands of illegal miners from the nearby Tenke Fungurume mine last week.

A failure to address the problems surrounding the activities of illegal miners at the sites could see copper and cobalt from the region listed as “conflict” minerals, as gold, tin, tantalum and tungsten have been.