A new partnership between Kinshasa and Washington is launched this January to regulate the legal and responsible artisanal extraction of cobalt and copper from the DRC.
Through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the American Government is supporting a pilot project to be carried out in the Lualaba province.
The objective, according to a press release from the US Embassy published on January 22, is to make the artisanal exploitation of copper and cobalt a real profession whose products resulting from this work meet international market standards.
The project “Professionalize the artisanal copper-cobalt supply chain in the DRC” is implemented in collaboration with the subsidiary of GECAMINES-Entreprise générale du cobalt (EGC), created in 2019, with the aim of supervising the purchase and marketing of artisanal cobalt in the DRC.
This project is funded to the tune of 2 million USD. It will allow the General Cobalt Company to improve its operations on the ground and implement standards to guarantee responsible exploitation of artisanal copper and cobalt from the DRC, according to international standards; including voluntary principles on security and human rights.
-Artisanal mining thus professionalized will, according to the spirit of this project, offer guarantees for responsible mining practices and compliance with labor and environmental standards. The traceability of the supply chain will also be ensured, the project implies.
Once the new professionalization model is in place, the press release emphasizes, the Congolese artisanal copper-cobalt industry will legally enter world markets. The profit will thus return to workers, communities, and all actors in the supply chain but also all people.
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