Responsible gold also means supporting livelihoods of artisanal miners

Mar 24, 2015 | Tyler Gillard
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Last year, a blind Congolese civil society leader named Eric Kajemba helped broker a deal between the Congolese army, local authorities, three powerful Congolese families and a Canadian mining company to de-militarise a lucrative gold mine in South Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).The mine, called Mukungwe, supports an estimated 5,000 thousand so-called “artisanal” gold miners, who work in harsh conditions and have for years lived under constant threat of extortion and violence by armed groups, the military and criminal gangs that operated in the area.