Case study

Ruashi artisanal miners

When Metorex acquired the defunct Ruashi Mine it understood that it would face a range of challenges in bringing the project back into production. Ruashi had originally been developed as an opencast copper-cobalt mine in the 1920s, but operated only briefly. In the 1960s state mining company Gécamines, reopened Ruashi and operated it until the 1980s, primarily as an underground mine. Due to the challenging political and economic climate of the time as well as stagnant copper prices, Ruashi was effectively abandoned in the 1980s. With Ruashi located on the boundaries of Lubumbashi and the recovery of copper prices in 2004 there was a massive influx of about 3 000 informal miners onto the property. Within a short period they constructed as many as 80 informal tunnel systems up to a depth of 45 metres through which these artisanal miners accessed the high-grade ore beneath the flooded Pit 1 area and the near surface ore in the area of Pit 2.

At the time the Congolese Mining Code explicitly provided for informal mining on land not covered by formal mining leases. The informal miners on the Ruashi property organised themselves into two associations – EMAK and CMKK – which licensed them and collected an administrative levy. Nevertheless, the high-grade ore extracted by the miners was sold to non-Congolese, non-resident buyers which meant that the state derived no benefit from the extraction of the orebody.

When Metorex acquired the rights to the Ruashi mining lease these miners de facto became illegal. It would have been common practice for the owner of a mining lease to enlist the help of the state’s armed forces to assert a claim and to remove any trespassers. Despite encountering initial hostility and suspicion by the informal miners, Metorex chose not to go this route. Instead, the small, initial Metorex team, comprising both local and expatriate employees, chose to focus on orebody definition and exploration drilling in the proximity of the Pit which allowed them to establish an understanding of the local conditions without coming into conflict with the informal miners. However, initial attempts to assert its right of access to the main ore body were blocked by the miners.

Metorex was fortunate that its activities coincided with the return from exile of Moise Katumbï Chapwe (the then future Governor of Katanga Province). Prior to launching his political career, Katumbï had been convinced that foreign investment would have to play a significant role in the reconstruction of the Congo. He also understood that the business model of the informal miners primarily benefited the foreign buyers of the ore over the workers. The solution in his view lay in building a dialogue that would allow both sides to reach a mutually acceptable solution and he involved himself personally in opening this dialogue in order to ensure that the Ruashi investment, the largest investment by a South African company in the Congo at that stage, would come to fruition. His intervention allowed Metorex to begin the process of building bridges to the leaders of EMAK and CMKK on the understanding that at some stage they would have to leave. With his help, Metorex sought to build a relationship with the informal miners in order to convince them that they were occupying the Ruashi concession illegally and that the Company would have been within its rights to call upon the state to effect a forced removal. At the same time Metorex stressed that it had no intention of adopting confrontational tactics and began buying the ore mined by the ‘informals’, paying a premium in order to buy material that it in theory already owned. Over a two-year period this material was stockpiled with Metorex deriving no immediate benefit from this, until the plant was commissioned and processing began.

Over time Metorex also assisted the informal miners in legalising their status, paying their state levies and taxes as well as informing them about accessing other deposits. Gécamines had sites formally set aside in terms of the Congolese Mining Code for informal miners to operate legally. As the two sides built up a more trusting relationship, the Company also sought to assert more control over the activities on site, building capacity among the informal miners in respect of safety and rendering emergency assistance in the case of serious safety incidents. By this process the Company gradually moved informal mining out of less safe areas, reducing accidents and building trust. With the help of a Belgian-funded NGO – Group One – and the eventual support of the informal miners, Metorex began the process of removing child labour from the site. In 2006 a BBC team covering conditions of informal miners in the Katanga region highlighted the use of child labour by informal miners. The BBC story confirmed that Metorex had inherited the informal miners and disapproved of child labour. However, the association of the Company with the use of children as workers by informal miners was identified in garbled form by subsequent reports. Metorex nevertheless persisted and with the help of Group One, ensured the removal of all children from the informal mining workforce and their placement into schools or other off-site activities.

At this stage Metorex felt that its relationship with the informal miners had reached a stage at which a phased removal of these people could be initiated with their consent. The process began in late 2006 with the formal registration of all on-site miners – over 3 500 in all. This was done with the assistance of EMAK and CMKK in order to control the influx of opportunistic new arrivals. With registration complete, Metorex offered the informals a range of options; some, notably a group of approximately 50 individuals paid by EMAK to ensure on-site security were engaged by the Company as they had the requisite skills to control access to the site and preserve security during the movement of people while being the last individuals left on site.

At no stage, however, did the Company or any of its employees treat this exercise as a relocation or resettlement with compensation project. Metorex employees had at all times stressed to the informals their illegal status and the finite, though undefined, nature of time that the Company would allow their presence to continue on site. While being completely unambiguous on this issue Metorex did at all times scrupulously avoid any form of intimidation, stressing their willingness to find mutually acceptable solutions to the problem.

A range of informal miners moved away on their own accord to take up other economic opportunities. A small number that demonstrated mining-related skills were offered employment with Ruashi Mining. Many were given the opportunity, upon presentation of a credible business proposal, to receive a small capital investment with which to initiate a new business, such as brickmaking or baking. Some of these, working in construction, remain active subcontractors of Ruashi to this day. The majority, however, chose with the support of EMAK to move to other mining sites set aside for informal mining activities in order to operate legally.

During mid-2007 the violent removal of a group of informal miners from another mine site in the vicinity of Lubumbashi temporarily heightened local tensions and threatened to stop the Ruashi process. However, ultimately the relationship built between the informal miners on the Ruashi site and Metorex over a two-year period, allowed the process to be completed peacefully. In August 2007 Ruashi, after draining Pit 1 and clearing much of the informals’ makeshift infrastructure, initiated its first blast in the Ruashi Pit. EMAK continues to represent informal mining interest in the Katanga region to this day and maintains an open dialogue with Metorex. For Metorex, the experience built an understanding of community issues that would lay the foundation for the Company’s approach to its future community support projects.

Case study

The need for constructive, transparent engagement: SARW

During the course of the year we have engaged with a range of governmental and non-governmental stakeholders, including the Southern African Resources Watch (“SARW”) as part of their research into South African companies operating in southern Africa. SARW claimed that it approached Metorex operations for input but that we failed to respond adequately. In fact, SARW’s correspondence in many cases requested matters that were still under negotiation such as the terms of the development agreements with the Zambian Government at the time. As a result the initial SARW publication was, in our view, unbalanced and weakened by some obvious factual errors which more thorough research could have avoided. Metorex nevertheless chose to engage directly with SARW after the publication of its research at our corporate office as well as subsequently allowing open access to our operations. However, despite assurances that factual errors would be corrected and a more constructive dialogue would take place going forward, we have found that the information continues to be used selectively and that the new version of SARW material remains incompletely researched, relying all too frequently on unsubstantiated claims by unidentified individuals often not directly linked to the mines themselves.

Going forward Metorex will continue to engage with SARW and communicate its concerns about the material published in this manner. But failing a more constructive approach, the Group increasingly will counter the dissemination of unbalanced research with more balanced information written by third parties on behalf of the Group. It will also increasingly seek to be more transparent about the details of the engagement process. We believe that engagement with organisations such as SARW can, if pursued constructively by both sides, lead to positive outcomes beneficial to all stakeholders and most importantly our host communities.