Ministerial Decree #19/15 about the safeguarding of the activities related to artisanally exploited strategic minerals

Ministerial Decree #19/15 about the safeguarding of activities related to artisanally exploited strategic minerals aims at better controlling the activities of artisanal mining in order to improve the working conditions, environmental impacts and economic attractiveness of DRC’s strategic minerals, namely cobalt.

It establishes that the artisanal production of strategic minerals can only be performed by artisanal operators under the supervision of the strategic minerals markets regulation and control authority, a public organism created by this decree. All strategic minerals that require transformation to be exported - such as cobalt - now fall within a state monopoly framework, and must be sold to the state-backed entity that is similarly created as a result of this decree. Artisanal miners of strategic minerals need to respect a set of environmental and social regulations, including the prohibition of child and vulnerable people labour.

This decree quickly led to the creation of EGC (Entreprise Générale du Cobalt), the General Cobalt Company, a branch of Gecamines that is in charge of buying all artisanally produced cobalt (that requires transformation for export) in the DRC, in order to ensure social and environmental standards are met and proper tracking is feasible.

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