The Democratic Republic of the Congo's (DRC) state-owned cobalt agency is seeking fresh alliances with big mining companies to combat illegal mining activities that continue to threaten the country's mining sector.
The agency, Entreprise Générale du Cobalt (EGC), which oversees the procurement of hand-mined cobalt throughout the country, says it wants to work more closely with industrial operators to solve the rising issue of unlicensed artisanal miners infiltrating huge mining concessions.
Illegal artisanal mining has long led to operational and safety hazards to Congo's big companies, like the CMOC Group and Glencore.
These activities are propagated by hundreds of thousands of Congolese laborers, many of whom do so despite the hazardous working conditions.
Owing to the scale of informal mining, both government officials and private firms have struggled to completely safeguard mining sites and prevent unwanted entry.
