Tensions high in DRC, the global cobalt capital, between artisanal miners and industrial mining companies

Artisanal miners are an integral part of the entities involved in mining activities.

Originally published on Global Voices

Monument of an artisanal miner (those who dig the earth by hand or with basic equipment) at the Mwangeji Roundabout in Kolwezi, Lualaba Province, DRC. Photo by Simplice Bambe used with permission.

Kolwezi, a mining city in the Lualaba Province of the southeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), holds 70 percent of the world’s cobalt reserves. Known...