From Wildlife Messengers:
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo tens of thousands of rural families have experienced a long-term decline in their on-farm subsistence capacity due to government policy, war and demographic pressures. After agriculture, artisanal mining is now the second most important livelihood in the eastern DRC despite the inherent dangers of the work.
Between 2013 and 2015, the International Peace Information Service (IPIS) visited 1,615 artisanal mines across the region, recording the presence of 239,700 miners. Around 80 percent of these miners were working in gold mines, and around two-thirds were working in mines affected by the presence of the national army or a non-state armed group. Often, armed groups levy a tax or demand tribute in return for ‘protection’.
While much attention has been paid in recent years to the links between artisanal mining and conflict in the eastern DRC, less is known about the labour and production process itself. This photo story documents the process, following Congolese gold from its extraction at a rural artisanal gold mine in South Kivu Province, through processing and trade, to its transformation into a final product in the provincial capital, Bukavu...[more]