A special conference convened by the Diamond Development Initiative (DDI) in partnership with PROMINES, a World Bank supported project for growth with governance in the mining sector, will be held on August 27 at Kinshasa on the importance of the formalization of artisanal miners in the DRC.

Experts from different related sectors will share their experiences in the formalization process.

Artisanal production represents more than 80% of mineral production exported by the DRC. The government and the DDI have been working to register artisanal miners in different sectors as an important first step to formalisation of their activities.  Congolese registration officers have overcome difficult local conditions to register 55,000 miners of gold and the “3Ts” (tin, tungsten and tantalum) in various parts of the country.

It may be recalled that DDI had moved beyond its traditional focus on diamond mining last year when it agreed to partner PROMINES and the DRC government in a project that would help apply the learnings from its initiatives in the diamond sector in other African countries to formalising other mining sectors in DRC.