At least 36 illegal miners are believed to have died in a copper mine owned by Glencore in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) on Thursday.
The miners were killed when two ‘galleries’ overlooking an open excavation pit collapsed at the same mining site which claimed six lives in 2016.
Glencore, the world’s biggest mining company, confirmed that at least 19 illegal miners were killed when part of the open-pit mine in the Kolwezi area collapsed, and said further fatalities were possible. Richard Muyej, the governor of the DRC’s Lualaba province, told Reuters that the accident had claimed the lives of at least 36 “clandestine artisanal diggers”.
The FTSE 100 company, which owns 75% of the Kamoto Copper Company (KCC) through its Katanga Mining subsidiary, blamed the illegal miners for trespassing at the copper mine and “putting their lives at risk”. These miners were working along two ‘benches’, or narrow strips cut into the side of the open pit, which caved in, killing the workers.
Glencore said it has observed a growing number of artisanal miners trespassing at the mine, and estimates that on average 2,000 illegal miners gather on the site every day.
The “daily intrusions” have raised a “significant risk to its employees, operating equipment and the illegal artisanal miners themselves”, Glencore said.
In a statement Glencore said the “incidents” were not linked to the mine’s operations, and would not affect production at the mine.
The company said it was assisting search and rescue operations with the local authorities. It urged all illegal miners to “cease from putting their lives at risk by trespassing on a major industrial site”.
Deadly mining accidents are common in DRC, where unemployment is high and artisanal miners hunt for copper to sell, often in dangerous conditions.
Glencore said it is “doing what it can” to inform the communities of the dangers associated with illegal trespassing on mining sites.
“The safety and security of its employees, contractors and host communities is of paramount importance to KCC. KCC will take all possible measures to ensure their safety and will continue to engage with all relevant stakeholders,” the company said.
The collapse is Kamoto’s deadliest accident since 2016 when a 250 metre pit wall collapsed, killing six miners, of which five were employed by Kamoto. At the time a union leader said many more could have been killed had it not been for a temporary work suspension at the mine.
Shares in Glencore fell by 4.9% to 263.9p after news of the collapse emerged, wiping £1.8bn off the value of the Swiss-based fossil fuel group.
Katanga Mining, which is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, was hit with a $30m (£24m) fine by Canadian regulators last year for “materially misleading” its investors by overstating its copper reserves. Katanga was also forced to halt sales of cobalt late last year after discovering traces of uranium in its supplies.
