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
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Chapter 3: Bafwasende and Mambasa
(Filip Hilgert & Rachel Perks)
3.1 Minerals in Bafwasende and Mambasa
Orientale province occupies 503,239 km 2 and comprises 22 percent of the nation’s land surface.
It has a population of 6.6 million (12 percent of the total population) and an average 4.7 people
per household. The administrative capital is Kisangani and there are four districts (Bas-Uele,
Haut-Uele, Tshopo, Ituri). Some 75.5 percent of the population lives in poverty, with an average
monthly household income of US$25. Agriculture (cassava, plantain, rice) is the main livelihood
for 84 percent of the population, and there is a history of growing coffee, cocoa and palm oil for
export. Animal husbandry and fishing are other important activities. 149
Minerals play an important, though largely informal, economic role for a significant amount of
the population. While large-scale mining has historically played a central role in the economy of
the eastern part of Orientale province, most mining today is artisanal and small-scale.
This chapter does not look at mine sites across the entire province; 150 but focuses just on those
in the least-known areas bordering North Kivu, namely southern Bafwasende territory (Tshopo
district) and Mambasa territory (Ituri district). These hinterlands mainly service the trading towns
of Butembo, Beni and Bunia, and the minerals extracted from them include gold, diamonds,
cassiterite, coltan and wolframite.
Diamonds
Though an important source of income and revenue across the country, diamonds will not be
treated in depth. Despite the strides made in the Kimberley Process, sizeable amounts of diamonds
continue to be exported illegally from the province, but diamond production and exports fell
sharply between 2008 and 2009, in value and in volume, as a result of the global financial crisis. 151
CEEC figures for the first five months of 2010 show a further decrease in production compared
to 2009, but a 32 percent increase in value. 152 In Orientale the crisis has led to the abandonment
of the majority of the diamond sites, the bankrupcy of most diamond négociants and a large shift
by artisanal diamond miners into gold.
Gold
The 2009 CEEC Orientale activity report declared 86.829 kg (US$2,134,547) of gold bought
and “sealed” within the province 153 . Compared to 2008 (16.618 kg for US$336,315) this was
an increase in volume of 422.5 percent and an increase in value of 534.69 percent. To provide
context for these figures, the entire DRC legally exported only 123 kg of gold in 2008, for an
estimated five tonnes of production. 154 CEEC Orientale attributes the the large rise in production
in 2009 to the influx of many former diamond miners into gold, and especially the opening of
two official comptoirs in Bunia (COPED and OKIMO/MIKUBA) and the subsequent installation
of a CEEC office. In fact, over 96.5 percent of the total official gold production of the province in
2009 was declared in Bunia, and the remainder by just one comptoir in Kisangani (Abner Congo
149 UN Development Programme (2009) ‘Province Orientale. Profil Résumé’, op. cit.
150 See IPIS natural resources map of Province Orientale, with accompanying report by S. Spittaels and F. Hilgert, ‘Mapping conflict motives:
Province Orientale (DRC), March 2010, at http://www.ipisresearch.be/mapping_orientale.php.
151 According to Direction Provinciale du CEEC, Synthèse du rapport d’activités 2009, from 244,160.44 carats (US$16,864,069) in 2008 to
96,666.94 carats (US$4,927,901) in 2009, a decrease of 60.41 percent in production and 70.78 percent in value.
152 36,666.57 carats (US$2,159,026) in January–May 2010, and 40,176.52 carats (US$1,634,730) in January–May 2009. Over 38 percent of
production comes from mines just north of Kisangani (Lubuya Bera collectivity), and 25 percent from Bafwasende territory.
153 The Provincial Division des Mines 2009 annual report has only 62.79389 kg (US$1,556,441.24).
154 ‘RDC, Exploitation d’or, une perte sèche de près de 70 millions USD suite à la fraude’, Radio Okapi, 13th July 2009.