User:Hk5183/Minière de Kalumbwe Myunga

Minière de Kalumbwe Myunga (MKM), is a Chinese Mining Company in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It functions in Haut-Katanga Province. At the outset MKM invested major resources hoping to treat ore from its own mine. MKM is a subsidiary of China National Overseas Engineering Corporation (COVEC), a multinational specialized in construction and engineering that chose to invest in copper and cobalt mining in DRC. Its operating site is located in Myunga, a protected area in Basse Kando. The monitoring conducted by PREMICONGO has helped to highlight countless irregularities committed by this company in managing the Congolese human resources, the environment and the fulfillment of its social obligations. As far as the environment is concerned, the company is responsible for the pollution of the Dikanga, a tributary of Kando River that runs into Congo River. This pollution caused the destruction of the residents’ living space in the villages around the MKM site.

Kalumbwe Myunga Mining Limited (MKM SPRL) is a company under Congolese law that was founded in 2004. It used to be a joint venture between Gecamines, a state-owned company, and EXACO (a company owned by Artisanal Congolese Operators). What was particular with EXACO was to extract minerals by artisanal techniques and process them in a plant in located in Lubumbashi. Through this joint venture, EXACO accessed the copper and cobalt deposits located Kalumbwe Myunga near the village of Kisanfu in the Lualaba District, 40 kilometers south of the city of Kolwezi.

In 2005, the China Overseas Engineering Corporation (COVEC) signed an agreement with MKM. In the new joint venture, 71% belongs to COVEC and 29% to MKM. At the kick-off the total cost of the project and the Chinese investment was as much as 270 million US dollars, which means that the part MKM brought into the contract is the concession. It is important to notice that COVEC is itself a subsidiary of the China Railway Engineering Corporation. COVEC implements activities in several countries where it develops engineering projects, such as Morocco with road construction, or South Africa with water distribution infrastructure. In DRC, it chose to invest in the mining sector. In addition to MKM, it holds significant shares in the COMILU (Luisha Mining Company).

MKM began the production phase in 2011. The new site includes an open pit mine and a copper and cobalt plant. Ore is processed by hydrometallurgical process. According to the company website, the annual production for 2014 was 8,700 tons of copper and 926 tons of cobalt. The company's main facilities are located in Kisanfu whereas the company’s headquarters is based in Lubumbashi.

Kalumbwe used to be the name an old home village of the Koni, traditional chiefs of the land named after themselves. After the Koni left, Kalumbwe lost all of its inhabitants who followed their chief in his new capital village. Nowadays MKM workers have set up a camp where there used to be a village. Myunga is the name of the huge dry and dense forest where Koni would invoke their ancestors’ spirits and receive their orientations (sic).

The Koni have so far settled in Kisanfu village after which the entire region was named and where several villages are located, including the MKM workers’ camp in Kalumbwe and the Myunga forest.

The DRC administration is accountable for granting the mining concession to MKM in Basse Kando, a protected area, which is a violation of the mining regulations (Chapter 2, article 8). In fact, the mining regulations list up the sites where mining is forbidden, and Basse Kando is one of these sites. MKM is also accountable for this violation because they did not have to take this concession where mining is forbidden by the law.

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Wimberley F, Onley P, van de Schyff, Cunningham E, Eckstein S, Lotheringen J, Anderson S and Johnstone K, 2011 - Mineral experts report: Mutanda (selected excerpts): in   Technical report prepared for Glencore International plc by Golder Associates www.hkexnews.hk,    18p.