DRC-Mines: LAMIKAL, the young Chinese-owned mining company, amounts to 685,000 USD

The LAMIKAL mining company (La Minière de Kalukundi SA) is located about 70 km east of the town of Kolwezi in Lualaba, DRC, and its site covers an area of ​​27.2 square kilometers. It achieves an annual average production of copper around 45,000 tonnes and 5,000 tonnes of cobalt, in the event of stability of the electric current. Its shareholding is made up of 75% from the Chinese side, 20% from Moroccans, and 5% from the Congolese state. LAMIKAL is counted among the benjamines of the cupro-cobalt production of Lualaba. It was from 2017 that feasibility studies began in its mine. The excavation took place in 2019. And its first copper and cobalt cathodes were released in September 2020.

Actions  for the community

With a view to promoting the development of local communities, the government in its new mining code revised in 2018, requires mining companies to contribute 0.3% of their turnover to an endowment for the development of local communities. Moreover, companies should draw up “specifications” setting out their commitments to local populations, with a view to improving their living conditions, on the one hand, and relations between populations and companies. , the other.

La Minière de Kalukundi SA costed at 685,000 USD, with the possibility of revisiting, its specifications drawn up in consultation with local communities, for a period of 5 years, from 2021 to 2025.

Indeed, LAMIKAL has provided the Local Development Committee (CLD), a structure of local civil society, with offices and a multipurpose room.

Ilunga Bernard, secretary of the CLD welcomes the support provided by Kalukundi Mining for this infrastructure. He also recalled the community’s requests to the company. 

“The construction of the multipurpose room as a CLD office is one of the achievements of the LAMIKAL company. In our specifications, we asked for the construction of a school, a health center, the market, the training of farmers with endowment of engrains and seeds, supervision of widows and orphans, for a period of 5 years “, he maintained. 

The Kalukundi Mining also carried out a borehole for the benefit of the population of the Pumpi village. 

This mining company also pays its mining royalty charges.

Energy deficit

This mining company which needs at least 45 KW to run its machines faces an energy deficit of the electric current of the National Electricity Company (SNEL). To compensate for this energy deficit LMK is participating in the financing of the Busanga dam construction project, in the south of the Katanga region.

“We are in the process of building the Busanga dam, to alleviate the difficulty of the electric current. The generators do not manage to give a good capacity for the mining production. When there is cut of the electric current, one stops the production. . And it is every day that we encounter this kind of situations “, explains Damien Kanyembo, Director of Human Resources at Kalukundi SA Mining.

Discussions between LAMIKAL and SNEL are underway to improve the electrical energy service. The energy power supplied by SNEL to this mining company does not reach half of its expectations. 

“Every day, there are cuts in the electric current of at least 4h to 5h”, specifies Mr. Damien Kanyembo. 

As soon as the Busanga hydroelectric power station is set aside, LAMIKAL will increase its production capacity.

Treatment of workers 

LAMIKAL has 800 national workers including 550 subcontractors. Testimonies collected from these workers do not accuse facts of mistreatment within this mining company.

“I am among the first to be recruited into this company. If there was mistreatment, I would quit or change jobs”, Mr. Dodo, geological engineer at LMK.

Martin Mulako, sales assistant at LAMIKAL, goes in the same direction.

“We are treated very well. No Congolese are mistreated here. Sino-Congolese cooperation has reduced the unemployment rate in our region. This has contributed to purchasing power. I am a witness. If there are any things which are said in this direction, it is about a campaign of demonization against the Chinese “, Martin Mulako, commercial assistant.

Facts also confirmed by field workers.

LAMIKAL adopts the Hydro-metallurgical process, whose main production facilities include: concentrating and metallurgical plant, mining facilities and auxiliary facilities.

Through its organization, this mining company has all the assets to establish itself in the cupro-cobalt production in Lualaba.