EngFAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
The Mining industry of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is a significant factor in the world's production of cobalt, copper, diamond, tantalum, tin, and gold. It is the Democratic Republic of the Congo's largest source of export income. In 2009, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) had an estimated $24 trillion in untapped mineral deposits, including the world's largest reserves of coltan and significant quantities of the world's cobalt. The United States Geological Survey estimates that the DRC has 1 million tons of lithium resources.
During the Second Congo War mass-scale looting of mineral assets by all combattant forces—Congolese, Rwandan, Ugandan and foreign civilians—took place. The small artisanal mining operations the fighters were robbing sometimes shut down afterwards and larger foreign businesses reduced operations as well. Following the peace accord in 2003, the focus returned to mining. Rebel groups supplied international corporations through unregulated mining by soldiers, locals organized by military commanders and by foreign nationals. The political framework was unstable. In 2009 the DRC signed a loan contract with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for $12 billion of debt relief in 2010. The loan included trade conditions, such as liberalization of the diamond trade.[citation needed] At the end of 2012 the IMF suspended the last payments, because of a lack of transparency in the DRC's process for awarding mining contracts. The mining sector has since expanded, but commodity prices have declined and this has hampered the DRC's progress.
Much mining has been done in small artisanal mining operations, sometimes known as Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining (ASM). These small-scale mines are unregulated, with high levels of child labor and workplace injury. They can occur within protected areas, and around endangered or threatened species. As of 2008 many ASM operations existed for minerals such as coltan.[citation needed] ASM operations employ a significant portion of the DRC's population; estimates range up to one fifth of the population, or 12.5 million people. Problems stemming from artisanal mining include disruption of families, mining-related illnesses, environmental damage, child labor, prostitution and rape.
Source: www.wikipedia.com
Sparsely populated in relation to its area, the Democratic Republic of the Congo is home to a vast potential of natural resources and mineral wealth. Despite this, the economy has declined drastically since the mid-1980s.
At the time of its independence in 1960, the Democratic Republic of the Congo was the second most industrialized country in Africa after South Africa. It boasted a thriving mining sector and its agriculture sector was relatively productive. Since then, corruption, war and political instability have been a severe detriment to further growth, today leaving DRC with a GDP per capita among the world's lowest.
Despite this the DRC is quickly modernizing having tied with Malaysia for the largest positive change in HDI development in 2016. And projects which include strengthening the health system for maternal and child health, expansion of electricity access, water supply reconstructions, and urban and social rehabilitation programs.
Source: www.wikipedia.com
The geology of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, commonly abbreviated as DRC, also known as Congo-Kinshasa and formerly as Zaire and Belgian Congo, is extremely old, on the order of several billion years for many rocks. The country spans the Congo Craton: a stable section of ancient continental crust, deformed and influenced by several different mountain building orogeny events, sedimentation, volcanism and the geologically recent effects of the East Africa Rift System in the east. The country's complicated tectonic past have yielded large deposits of gold, diamonds, coltan and other valuable minerals.
Source: www.wikipedia.com
The Democratic Republic of the Congo forms part of the Congo River Basin, which covers an area of almost 1,000,000 square kilometres (390,000 sq mi). The country's only outlet to the Atlantic Ocean is a narrow strip of land on the north bank of the Congo River.
The vast, low-lying central area is a plateau-shaped basin sloping toward the west, covered by tropical rainforest and criss-crossed by rivers, a large area of this has been categorized by the World Wildlife Fund as the Central Congolian lowland forests ecoregion. The forest center is surrounded by mountainous terraces in the west, plateaus merging into savannahs in the south and southwest.
Dense grasslands extend beyond the Congo River in the north. High mountains of the Ruwenzori Range (some above 5,000 m or 16,000 ft) are found on the eastern borders with Rwanda and Uganda (see Albertine Rift montane forests for a description of this area).
Source: www.wikipedia.com
The Democratic Republic of the Congo was a net energy exporter in 2008. Most energy was consumed domestically in 2008. According to the IEA statistics the energy export was in 2008 small and less than from the Republic of Congo. 2010 population figures were 3.8 million for the RC compared to CDR 67.8 Million.
Source: www.wikipedia.com
Rail transport in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is provided by the Congo Railroad Company (Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer du Congo) and the Office National des Transports (Congo) (ONATRA) and the Office of the Uele Railways (Office des Chemins de fer des Ueles, CFU).
The national system is mostly operated by the Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer du Congo (SNCC). Not all rail lines link up, but are generally connected by river transport. The rail systems are listed below.
Source: www.wikipedia.com
Ground transport in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has always been difficult. The terrain and climate of the Congo Basin present serious barriers to road and rail construction, and the distances are enormous across this vast country. Furthermore, chronic economic mismanagement and internal conflict has led to serious under-investment over many years.
On the other hand, the DRC has thousands of kilometres of navigable waterways, and traditionally water transport has been the dominant means of moving around approximately two-thirds of the country.
Source: www.wikipedia.com