This opinion piece was published by Jean-Claude Katende, National Coordinator of Publish What You Pay (PWYP) DRC. It was first published on 13 November 2022 in the Ugandan newspaper The Independent before PWYP reprinted it on its website on 21 November 2022.
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Transitional minerals could transform the Democratic Republic of Congo, but local communities must have their say, writes Jean-Claude Katende, national coordinator of Publish What You Pay in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The Congo’s natural resources have been plundered at terrible cost to its people since the murderous colonial rule of Belgium and Leopold II began in the 19th century.
For almost 150 years, extreme violence and corruption have cast a shadow over the extraction of our rubber, our ivory, our gold, our wood and our diamonds. The agents of this damage have been both national and foreign. Meanwhile, most Congolese have not seen the social and economic benefits of our natural wealth, and instead languish in poverty.
Today, minerals from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are coveted as a way to help propel the world towards a clean energy future.
The world urgently needs decarbonisation to end climate chaos and ensure that our planet remains liveable. This will require a six-fold increase in the production of minerals such as cobalt, lithium, nickel and copper, which are needed to help produce, transport, store and use the electricity generated by cleaner sources such as wind and solar power.
The DRC – and other parts of Africa – which hold vast reserves of these transition minerals will be essential.
A springboard for development?
Cobalt is one of the most sought-after minerals in the world – it is a key component of the lithium-ion batteries that power electric vehicles (EVs) in particular.
The DRC is by far the world’s largest producer of cobalt: in 2020, just four mines in the DRC produced 41% of the world’s cobalt supply, while Africa holds 19% of the world’s reserves of the metals needed to manufacture a standard battery-powered electric vehicle.
The current boom in transition minerals will only accelerate.
The World Bank has found that production of minerals such as cobalt could increase by almost 500% to meet demand for cleaner energy technologies – and the DRC’s untapped deposits of raw minerals are worth more than 24 <> billion dollars, according to a study by Michigan State University.
If used properly, this wealth could be the springboard for developing our country and giving our citizens the social services they desperately need: drinking water, electricity, good roads, schools, healthcare and economic security.
But for the moment, this is far from being the case.
Mining still benefits the ruling class and corporations at the expense of ordinary citizens. Mining is still plagued by corruption, bad governance, human rights and environmental abuses. If this continues, it will bring no real transformation to either the DRC or Africa: just more of the misery that has for so long accompanied the exploitation of our natural resources.
Widespread abuse
This is already the case. In Lualaba and Haut-Katanga – the two southern provinces at the heart of the DRC’s cobalt and copper mining industries – human rights abuses and environmental destruction are commonplace, while local populations have been largely excluded from the profits and employment opportunities generated by the influx of international mining companies.
The US Department of Labor has estimated that around 35,000 children work in cobalt mines in the DRC, mainly in artisanal and small-scale mines, where people who are not officially employed by the mining companies collect minerals in often deplorable conditions and sell them to middlemen on open markets. Artisanal miners and other local residents have suffered violence and even death at the hands of the security forces for encroaching on industrial mining sites.
Yet there is growing pressure from around the world to change this – and to ensure that the rush to extract the minerals used in cleaner energy technologies does not repeat the mistakes of the past by trampling on human rights and destroying local environments.
Momentum for change
This month, 250 civil society organisations from 62 countries called on world leaders attending the COP27 climate summit in Egypt to initiate real change in the way minerals are extracted and used, and to seek solutions that will reduce dependence on mining.
These organisations, which include the Publish What You Pay (PWYP) DRC coalition, work in a variety of fields – from the environment to human rights and the fight against corruption – and represent marginalised groups such as local communities, women and young people.
At the heart of our demands is that communities around the world affected by mining are meaningfully consulted and involved in all decisions affecting their lives; that they have the right to withhold consent to mining; and that minerals are extracted only in compliance with the highest international human rights and environmental standards.
We must also ensure that frontline communities see the benefits of mining. Revenues must be allocated to sustainable development projects that enable economic diversification. In the DRC, the system for collecting and allocating these revenues should be digitised, and the capacities of local agents responsible for implementing local community development plans should be strengthened.
Fighting corruption and strengthening governance as prerequisites
It is essential that the transition minerals market is well regulated, transparent, fair and equitable.
But for this to become a reality, there will have to be a relentless fight against corruption and embezzlement, led by a stronger, more proactive and more impartial judicial system.
An essential means of purging corruption and strengthening governance in the sector is full disclosure of mining contracts. The DRC itself, as a member of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, is obliged to do this.
We need to write a new chapter in the history of natural resource extraction in the DRC and Africa more widely: one that enables our societies to be positively transformed by transition minerals, and the fight to end the climate crisis that we have done so little to create on the continent. The author Jean-Claude Katende is an ardent defender of human rights and has long campaigned for transparency and good governance in the extractive industries. He is national coordinator of PWYP DRC, president of the African Association for Human Rights (l’Association africaine des droits de l’Homme, ASADHO) and vice-president of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH).
