Congo’s interior minister vowed to remove all illegal miners by Sunday from a copper and cobalt mine run by Glencore following a landslide this week that killed at least 43 of them.
Thursday’s accident at the Kamoto Copper Company (KCC) concession near Democratic Republic of Congo’s southern border with Zambia has focused attention on the dangers run by informal miners, who burrow dozens of meters below ground in search of ore using rudimentary tools.
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Glencore estimates that some 2,000 diggers enter KCC property each day. Tens of thousands more work in and around other major mines across Congo’s copperbelt.
“From tomorrow, if you come back here, you won’t see any more clandestines,” Interior Minister Basile Olongo told reporters on Saturday at the mine. “We are going to take measures to evacuate everyone.”
Olongo did not say how the government planned to make the miners leave. The governor of Lualaba province, where the mine is located, told Reuters on Friday that the army would be deployed to KCC to deter miners from entering.