* Mining concession awash with gold-seeking ex-rebels
* Company says artisanal miners an “immense challenge”
* Mine scheduled to start up in late 2013
By Jonny Hogg
MONGBWALU, Democratic Republic of Congo, April 30 (Reuters)
– A ngloGold Ashanti said on Monday its Mongbwalu gold mine in
Democratic Republic of Congo faces the obstacle of tens of
thousands of ex-fighters already mining the area who do not want
to leave.
It plans to start Mongbwalu output late next year.
“It’s an immense challenge and we recognise that,” Richard
Peattie, general manager of the Mongbwalu project, told Reuters.
The world’s third-biggest mining firm is partnered with
Congo’s government to build the industrial gold mine in a vast
zone deep in the hills of Ituri, a district in the central
African state still recovering from a bloody ethnic conflict
that ended in 2003.
As many as 200,000 artisanal miners, mostly ex-combattants
from the conflict, have set up operations in the the 6,000
square km concession – some with well-organised teams and
machinery to crush and sift through rock.
Continued…
