Glencore Congo mine accident cause 43 miners’ lives

Glencore Congo mine accident cause 43 miners’ lives

An accident happened at a copper and cobalt mine which owned by British-Swiss mining multinational Glencore in the Democratic Republic of the Congo killed 43 illegal miners on 27 June 2019. And this company stated that they are assisting search and rescue operations with the local authorities.

According to Glencore the company’s industrial mining concessions in the Kolwezi area are used by an average of 2,000 illegal artisanal miners per day, which it claims represents “a significant risk to its employees, operating equipment and the illegal artisanal miners themselves”.

Amnesty International campaigner Lauren Armistead said that “As long as there aren't enough authorised artisanal mining zones, miners will continue to enter large scale mining concessions to dig at great risk.
“And people really want to see the DRC government regularise unauthorised mining zones where possible, but also create new artisinal mining zones so it can provide a viable way of living and survivial for the thousands of people that depend on it.”