Modern Mining January 2017

TIN

we have a mine up and running.” One of the reasons why Kamstra describes the common perception of North Kivu as dated is that there is no longer a significant artisanal presence at Bisie – with the result that the ‘war- lords’ who used to exploit the informal miners have moved on. “Artisanal mining at Bisie started to take off in the early 2000s and the numbers on site eventually peaked at around 16 000 people,” he says. “In fact, Bisie reputedly had the high- est density of satellite phones on earth. The area was producing up to 4 % of the world’s tin and there was an El Dorado quality about it. But the bottom fell out of the market for Bisie’s informal producers when the Dodd-Frank leg- islation in the US in 2010 made it increasingly difficult to sell any conflict minerals or metals, including tin, at the same time as the artisanal miners went through the water table. Today, there only is only a small number of artisanals left and none at all at our Mpama North site, which is our current focus.” Kamstra emphasises that Alphamin is a member of the Conflict-Free Sourcing initia- tive (CFSI) and says the mine’s product will be entirely compliant with the Dodd-Frank legislation. He also mentions that Alphamin has strong backing from the DRC government, which has a 5 % share in the Bisie project, and South Africa’s IDC, which has invested US$10 million for a 14,25 % stake. Alphamin has put a great deal of work into forging relationships with communities in the area. “We were not welcomed with open arms initially,” Kamstra says. “So we decided to put a community programme in place. We’ve elected

resolved. Probably a bigger problem for the project than access is the somewhat unstable nature of North Kivu Province. The area is more peaceful than it has been in the past but armed groups still operate in the province and secu- rity is potentially an issue. Kamstra, however, is very positive. “The narrative about North Kivu being lawless is outdated,” he observes. “We’ve been on site at Bisie for more than three years and haven’t had too many problems. We acknowledge, of course, that operating in North Kivu is not the same as operating in some First World jurisdiction such as Australia or Canada. But it is manageable and the situation is constantly improving – and will almost certainly improve further still when

Dr Anselme Kitakya (Provincial Minister of Mines) laying the

cornerstone of the Logu School (one of Alphamin’s community projects) in the presence of Marie Claire Bangwene (Territorial Administrator), Richard Robinson (MD of ABM), ABM’s legal adviser, and Gilbert Kalinda (a leading member of the Walikale community).

Jamie Anderson, Alphamin’s Exploration Manager, and colleagues logging core.

to spend 4 % of our in-country expenditure on community initia- tives, which is an easily auditable number. We originally found it difficult to determine who exactly represents the communities we interact with but after three years we now know our way around and our support on the ground is growing strongly.” Counter balancing the nega- tives of operating in North Kivu is the sheer quality of the resource. Although the cassiter- ite mineralisation in the area was probably known to the Belgian colonials, it has taken Alphamin to delineate the magnitude of the resource. The company has links with Pangea Exploration (run by South African explorationists Rob

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34  MODERN MINING  January 2017