DRC Artisanal Mining Overview

Sector Overview

Artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) in the Democratic Republic of Congo is not a marginal economic activity — it is a way of life for millions of people. An estimated 2 to 3 million people are directly engaged in artisanal mining across the DRC, with perhaps 8 to 12 million more dependent on the sector through indirect economic activity: trading, transport, food supply, tool manufacturing, and other services that revolve around artisanal mining sites. In the Copperbelt provinces of Lualaba and Haut-Katanga, artisanal mining of copper and cobalt is the primary livelihood for communities that have no viable alternative employment.

The scale of DRC artisanal mining makes it a global issue. Artisanally mined cobalt from the DRC enters the supply chains of the world's largest technology, automotive, and energy companies. Every effort to build a responsible, traceable cobalt supply chain must contend with the DRC's artisanal sector — its complexity, its informality, its human cost, and its indispensable economic role.

Scale & Scope

Artisanal mining in the DRC spans multiple mineral commodities and geographic regions. In the southern Copperbelt, artisanal miners extract copper and cobalt from oxide deposits, alluvial sediments, and tailings from historic mining operations. In the eastern provinces (North Kivu, South Kivu, Ituri, Maniema), artisanal miners produce gold, tin (cassiterite), tantalum (coltan), and tungsten (wolframite) — the so-called conflict minerals. In the Kasai provinces, artisanal diamond mining persists. And in scattered locations across the country, artisanal gold panning and gem mining provide subsistence income.

The contribution of artisanal mining to national mineral output varies by commodity. For cobalt, artisanal production accounts for an estimated 15 to 30 percent of DRC output — a significant share of global supply. For gold, artisanal production likely exceeds industrial output by a substantial margin, though much artisanal gold exits the country through informal channels and is not captured in official statistics. For tin and tantalum, artisanal miners produce the majority of DRC output.

How ASM Works

Artisanal mining in the DRC operates through a layered system of miners, cooperatives, intermediary traders (negociants), and exporters. At the base of the pyramid are the "creuseurs" — the diggers who extract ore using hand tools: pickaxes, shovels, chisels, and in some cases primitive pumps and ventilation systems for underground workings.

In the Copperbelt, artisanal mining sites range from small surface pits to extended underground tunnels carved without engineering support. Miners typically work in teams of 5 to 20, sharing the cost of tools and the proceeds from ore sales. The ore — typically heterogenite (cobalt oxide) or malachite (copper oxide) — is carried in sacks from the mining site to a washing area, where it is cleaned and sorted by grade. The sorted ore is then sold to intermediary traders who operate at or near the mining sites.

Cooperatives are a legally required intermediary between individual miners and the formal market. Under the Mining Code, artisanal miners must be registered with a cooperative that holds an artisanal mining card (carte d'exploitant artisanal). In practice, many cooperatives function less as genuine collective organisations and more as gatekeepers who control access to mining sites and take a percentage of miners' production as fees.

The intermediary traders (negociants) aggregate ore from multiple mining sites and sell in larger quantities to processing depots or directly to the EGC. Negociants often provide advance financing to miners — buying ore at below-market rates in exchange for upfront cash — creating debt relationships that can be exploitative. The negociant network is deeply embedded in the social fabric of mining communities, and any formalisation effort must contend with these established commercial relationships.

Child Labour & Human Rights

Child labour in DRC artisanal mining is one of the most widely documented human rights concerns associated with the global mineral supply chain. Investigations by Amnesty International, UNICEF, and numerous media organisations have documented children as young as seven working at artisanal mining sites in the Copperbelt, performing tasks including ore sorting, washing, and carrying heavy loads. Older children, typically aged 12 to 17, are frequently found working underground in dangerous conditions.

The prevalence of child labour in artisanal mining is driven by poverty. In communities where formal employment is scarce and educational infrastructure is inadequate, mining offers children a source of income that families depend upon. The International Labour Organization estimates that tens of thousands of children work in DRC artisanal mining, though precise figures are difficult to establish due to the informal nature of the sector and the reluctance of families and site operators to disclose child workers to investigators.

Efforts to eliminate child labour from artisanal mining face fundamental challenges. While legislation prohibits child labour, enforcement capacity is minimal. Community-based monitoring programmes have shown some success at individual sites, but scaling these programmes across thousands of mining sites is an enormous undertaking. Moreover, simply removing children from mining without addressing the economic conditions that drive child labour can result in children being pushed into other forms of exploitation or deeper poverty.

Beyond child labour, artisanal mining in the DRC presents a range of human rights and occupational health concerns. Tunnel collapses are a regular occurrence, with fatalities going largely unreported. Exposure to cobalt and other metal dust causes respiratory and dermatological health problems. Working conditions — long hours, physical danger, lack of protective equipment — fall far below any reasonable standard of occupational safety.

Formalisation Efforts

The DRC government, with support from international development agencies, has pursued various formalisation initiatives aimed at bringing the artisanal sector within the regulatory framework. Formalisation is intended to achieve multiple objectives: improving safety standards, eliminating child labour, enabling mineral traceability, increasing government revenue, and reducing the role of armed groups in mineral supply chains.

The principal legal instrument for formalisation is the designation of Zones d'Exploitation Artisanale (ZEAs) — designated areas where artisanal mining is legally permitted. The Mining Code envisages a system in which artisanal mining is confined to ZEAs, miners are registered with cooperatives, production is documented, and minerals are sold through formal channels. In practice, the number of designated ZEAs is far smaller than the number of active artisanal mining sites, and a large proportion of artisanal activity occurs outside designated zones — on industrial concessions, on communal land, or on abandoned mining sites.

In December 2025, the DRC Minister of Mines signed a decree specifically addressing artisanal mining regulation in Kolwezi. This followed a temporary ban on artisanal mining in the area — a measure that triggered significant civil unrest as miners protested the loss of their livelihoods. The decree attempted to strike a balance between regulating the sector and preserving economic activity, establishing new operating requirements for cooperatives and reinforcing the EGC's role as the sole authorised purchaser of artisanal cobalt.

EGC & Supply Chain Control

The Entreprise Generale du Cobalt (EGC), established in 2019 as a subsidiary of Gecamines, represents the DRC government's most ambitious effort to assert control over the artisanal cobalt supply chain. The EGC holds the exclusive mandate to purchase, process, and commercialise cobalt, coltan, and germanium from artisanal sources. In theory, every kilogram of artisanally mined cobalt in the DRC should pass through the EGC.

The EGC operates purchasing stations in and around Kolwezi, where registered cooperatives bring their production for sale. The EGC sets purchasing prices — a function that gives it enormous influence over artisanal miners' incomes. Miners and cooperatives have frequently complained that EGC purchasing prices are below market levels and that the organisation's monopoly position eliminates the competitive pressure that once drove informal traders to offer better prices.

The EGC's commercial partnership with Trafigura provides international marketing and off-take. Under this arrangement, Trafigura purchases cobalt from the EGC and sells it to downstream processors with traceability documentation that is intended to meet the responsible sourcing requirements of international buyers. The February 2026 corridor shipment — the first artisanal mineral consignment to travel through the Lobito Corridor — was an EGC-Trafigura operation, establishing a precedent for routing artisanal production through formal corridor infrastructure.

ITSCI & Traceability Programmes

Several traceability programmes operate in the DRC's artisanal mining sector, each attempting to create documented links between mineral production at the mine site and final products sold to consumers.

The ITSCI (International Tin Supply Chain Initiative) programme, operated by the International Tin Association, is the most widely implemented traceability system for tin and tantalum in the DRC. ITSCI uses a tag-and-bag system in which mineral lots are tagged at the mine site, tracked through the trading chain, and documented at each point of sale and transport. The programme covers hundreds of mine sites, primarily in the eastern provinces, and is used by downstream companies to demonstrate compliance with conflict mineral regulations.

For cobalt, the primary traceability mechanism is the EGC's purchasing documentation, supplemented by programmes such as the Fair Cobalt Alliance's mine-site monitoring and the Responsible Minerals Initiative's assessment framework. digital traceability solutions have been piloted by several companies, though their practical application at scale remains limited by the informality and complexity of the artisanal supply chain.

Traceability programmes face persistent challenges in the DRC context. The sheer number of artisanal mining sites — thousands across the country — makes comprehensive coverage difficult. The incentive to circumvent traceability systems (to avoid taxes, to sell to higher-paying informal buyers, or to conceal the origin of minerals from conflict-affected areas) is strong. And the capacity of government agencies to verify traceability documentation is limited. Despite these challenges, traceability systems represent the most viable pathway toward a responsible artisanal mineral supply chain, and their continued development is essential for both human rights and commercial reasons.

ASM & the Lobito Corridor

The relationship between artisanal mining and the Lobito Corridor is significant and evolving. The EGC's February 2026 shipment of artisanally sourced copper and cobalt via the corridor represents a milestone in the integration of artisanal production into formal export infrastructure. If scaled, the corridor could provide a traceable, documented export route for artisanal minerals — a development that would support responsible sourcing objectives and potentially improve the terms of trade for artisanal producers.

However, the corridor also raises concerns in the context of artisanal mining. The railway rehabilitation and expansion projects associated with the corridor create displacement risks for communities that include artisanal mining populations. In Kolwezi, where the railway runs through densely populated areas adjacent to artisanal mining sites, the potential for conflict between railway operations and artisanal livelihoods is real.

The broader question is whether the corridor will contribute to the formalisation and improvement of the artisanal sector or simply provide a more efficient means of exporting raw materials while the underlying conditions of artisanal mining — poverty, danger, child labour, environmental degradation — remain unchanged. The answer depends on whether the significant investment flowing into corridor infrastructure is accompanied by equivalent attention to the social and economic conditions of the communities that produce the minerals the corridor is designed to transport.