The complexiTy of resource governance in a conTexT of sTaTe ... - Ipis

The complexity of resource governance in a context of state fragility: An analysis of the mining sector in the Kivu hinterlands
27
Chapter 2: Maniema
(Ken Matthysen & Gérard Nimpagaritse)
2.1 Minerals in Maniema
After being joined to the Kivus for 22 years, Maniema province was detached and re-established
in 1988. 62 The province was sub-divided into seven territories: Lubutu and Punia in the north,
Kailo and Pangi in the centre, and Kabambare, Kasongo and Kibombo in the south. Maniema
covers 132,500 km 2 – or 5.6 percent – of the DRC’s surface area. 63 In 2008 OCHA estimated its
population at about 2.25 million. 64
Maniema is rich in rivers and three-quarters of the province is covered by forest. The Congo
River runs from the south to north, draining the water of its tributaries spread throughout
the province. 65 Maniema used to have an important agricultural sector, producing rice, maize,
manioc, peanuts and bananas, 66 but successive wars have had a devastating effect on Maniema’s
agricultural production.
Maniema also has considerable mining potential. According to the Congolese government, the
province’s sub-soil is the country’s fourth richest after Katanga, Province Orientale and Eastern
Kasaï. The most important minerals found are cassiterite, wolframite, coltan, gold and diamonds. 67
Artisanal mineral extraction took off in the colonial era. As a rich tin-mining zone, Maniema
attracted several Belgian private companies such as the Empain Group’s Symetain and Cobelmines. 68
As production rose throughout the 1940s and early 1950s, the companies scaled up to industrial
exploitation, fuelling a further rise in production that lasted until the end of the 1960s, when
several deposits were close to depletion. In 1976, the Société Minière et Industrielle du Kivu
(Sominki) was created, merging several companies (including MGL, Cobelmines and Symetain)
in which the Zairian state held a 28-percent stake. 69
None of Sominki’s shareholders showed real interest or confidence in the company 70 , partly due
to the isolation of Maniema’s mines, and the company was unable to withstand the global tin
price crash of 1985. 71 Further crises in 1987 and 1991 led Sominki to confine its operations to
the commercialisation of minerals extracted from its concessions by artisanal miners. Sominki,
however, paid the “creuseurs” very little for their ore, reducing incentives and causing further
falls in output.
Industrial exploitation has still not revived although many exploration permits have been issued.
Mineral exploitation in Maniema remains exclusively artisanal. The province’s mining sector
has been further thrown into disarray by the wars the country has suffered. The few existing
production figures indicate that mineral production has been rising in recent years. This is due to
the growing number of artisanal miners, who have been encouraged by improved security since
62 Maniema province existed as a sole entity from May 1962 until President Mobutu’s centralisation programme in December 1966. T. Turner
(2007) The Congo wars: Conflict, myth & reality. London: Zed Books p. 78.
63 UN Development Programme, Province du Maniema, profil résumé: Pauvreté et conditions de vie de ménages, March 2009.
64 International Alert, The role of the exploitation of natural resources in fuelling and prolonging crises in the Eastern DRC, January 2010, p. 12.
65 UN Development Programme (2009), op. cit.
66 K. M. Donatien, Les transformations des relations économiques dans les zones de conflit Nord-Kivu et Maniema, UNDP, January 2004; RDC
Ministère du Plan, Monographie de la province du Maniema, March 2004, pp. 41-42.
67 RDC Ministère du Plan, op. cit.
68 International Alert (2010), op. cit.
69 Gregory Mthembu-Salter, Social and economic dynamics of mining in Kalima, DRC, Institute for Security Studies, April 2009, p. 2.
70 Ibid, p. 3
71 International Alert (2010), op. cit.