A landslide that struck the “Safi” mining quarry on Wednesday, in the town of Kakanda (Lubudi territory, Lualaba Province), has claimed the lives of several artisanal miners who were operating there illegally, according to local sources and the site’s operator.
The exact death toll remains difficult to establish. Several bodies have been pulled from the rubble, according to local sources on the ground. Rescue operations, carried out by fellow miners using rudimentary means, continued Thursday in an effort to locate possible survivors, Radio Okapi reported.
The quarry belongs to Boss Mining SAS, a subsidiary of Eurasian Resources Group (ERG), which holds a 51% stake alongside state-owned Gécamines, which owns the remaining 49%. In a statement released Thursday, Boss Mining confirmed that the March 11 landslide had caused “fatalities and injuries”, attributing the disaster to the presence of illegal operators on its concession. The company called on Congolese authorities to restore its “lawful access to these areas”, noting that its own employees had been barred from the site due to the presence of “unauthorized armed individuals.”
“Extremely dangerous conditions”
According to testimonies gathered on the ground, the victims were working in makeshift shafts dug without any prior technical assessment or structural support. “They work in extremely dangerous conditions, with no protective equipment or safety measures whatsoever,” lamented a local civil society representative quoted by the UN radio station.
Boss Mining says it has been alerting the Congolese government since 2022 to the “significant risks” posed by the heavy presence of illegal and semi-mechanized miners on its concession. Local authorities had yet to officially respond by Thursday, Bloomberg reported.
The issue of artisanal miners encroaching on industrial concessions is a recurring problem in Lualaba, the mining heartland of a country that is the world’s leading producer of cobalt and its second-largest producer of copper. On February 7, eleven artisanal miners were killed in a landslide at Tulwizembe, some twenty kilometres from Kolwezi, the provincial capital.
ERG also holds other assets in the DRC, including the Frontier copper mine and Metalkol, one of the world’s largest cobalt sources. The Luxembourg-registered group is 40% owned by the government of Kazakhstan.
M&B
