EU companies fueling minerals smuggling in DRC

An artisanal coltan mining operation in Rubaya, eastern DRC. Coltan is one of the most sought-after minerals and experts blame the unending conflict in the country on the mineral’s abundance. COURTESY PHOTO/GLOBAL WITNESS.

‘Coltan moves from DR Congo to EU via Rwanda’ANALYSIS | RONALD MUSOKE | All actors in the supply chain of illicit mineral exports, from operators of the mines to end product users, need to be held accountable for sustaining the bloodbath in the conflict-riven eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).That is the position of Bwesigye Don Binyina, the Executive Director of the Africa Centre for Energy and Mineral Policy (ACEMP), a Kampala-based extractive industries policy, research and advocacy think tank.Don Binyina was on April 23 reacting to a demand by Global Witness, the London based non-profit that works to expose how illegal trade in natural resources can fund conflict or fuel corruption.



Global Witness recommended the EU cancel an agreement that allows Rwanda to sell minerals to the bloc.Binyina told The Independent that the EU member states and big businesses such as Apple, Boeing and others downstream, need to be held accountable.Global Witness alleges that it has “concrete” evidence Rwanda has been exporting to the EU coltan smuggled from the conflict-riven eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

“Our investigation strongly suggests that conflict coltan from DRC and smuggled to Rwanda has entered the EU,” said Alex Kopp, Senior Campaigner at Global Witness, in a report published on April 15.Global Witness says a European Union-based commodities trader, Traxys, has been the importing company of the conflict coltan from the DRC via Rwanda. It says it seems that the EU has not been able to put effective safeguards in place and should immediately rescind its minerals partnership with Rwanda.

The strategic minerals partnership under Global Witness scrutiny was signed in February 2024. It is supposed to allow the EU to better access raw materials from Rwanda, including the coltan-derived tantalum, which the EU defines as a critical raw material.The non-profit also wants the EU to freeze its official development assistance to Rwanda, including the €900 million EU investment programme under the Global Gateway.

It also urged companies along supply chains originating from the African Great Lakes Region to carry out due diligence according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Due Diligence Guidance for Mineral Supply Chains in Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas.Global Witness alleges that, according to its investigation, Traxys, the multibillion-dollar company headquartered in Luxembourg was found to have bought 280 tonnes of coltan from Rwanda in 2024.According to Global Witness’s investigation, based on customs data, Traxys was almost the exclusive buyer of coltan sold by Rwandan minerals exporter, African Panther Resources Limited.

It says two traders who illegally bring coltan from Rubaya in the DRC over the border to Rwanda, told its investigators that African Panther has been buying smuggled coltan from Rwanda.The investigation found African Panther’s coltan exports had soared to unprecedented volumes in 2024, exceeding the combined total of the export volumes recorded over the previous four years. During the same period, Traxys ramped up its coltan import from Rwanda in 2023 and became one of the biggest buyers of coltan from Rwanda in 2024.

Coltan is currently one of the most sought-after minerals around the world thanks to its critical role in the manufacture of electronic equipment. When refined, two important metals; tantalum and niobium are extracted from the ore.Tantalum is an essential component in capacitors which regulates the flow of electricity in tiny circuit boards found in devices such as computers, smartphones and electric vehicles, while niobium is used in oil and gas pipelines, beams and girders for buildings oil rigs.

Rwanda dismissiveRwanda has previously dismissed allegations that its growing coltan exports are bolstered by smuggled consignments from the DRC. Instead, it says that its increasing coltan export volumes are from mines within its borders, specifically from its Rukaragata mine in Ngororero District in Western Province.To be clear, Rwanda and eastern DRC share similar geology.

Rwanda says Ngororero District boasts substantial wealth of pegmatites that host both coltan and cassiterite, which can be viably mined for more than 15 years in the future, with potential for further discoveries.It says the Rukaragata mine run by Power Resources International Ltd, a UK-based company, processes many tonnes of coltan per hour, using modern equipment and innovative processing techniques. Ray Power, the CEO of Power Resources International, has said previously that the mine currently produces 20 tonnes of Coltan and 20 tonnes of Cassiterite per month.

Media reports quote Matevz Pavlic, the Sector Chief of Mining at Power Resources International Ltd, saying the Ngororero area’s geology is part of the Kibaran-Angolan Belt, a geological region that spans parts of Central Africa, particularly in Angola and the DRC, and extends into Zambia and Tanzania. This belt is home to some of the richest deposits of copper, cobalt, and other valuable metals such as coltan.Donat Nsengumuremyi, the Division Manager for Mining and Inspection at the Rwanda Mine, Petroleum, and Gas Board (RMB), has also highlighted the widespread presence of pegmatites across Rwanda, which are key sources of its Coltan and Cassiterite.

“Pegmatites are found in various mining parts of the country especially in the West and East Provinces,” says Nsengumuremyi.However, the Global Witness investigation comes at a time when Rwanda is locked in a diplomatic fall-out with some member states of the EU over Kigali’s alleged backing of the M23 armed group that is fighting the Kinshasa government of President Felix Tshisekedi.The EU in March sanctioned nine individuals including the chief executive of the Rwanda Mines, Petroluem, and Gas Board and Gasabo Gold Refinery in Kigali.

The EU accused them of exporting illicit mineral resources from the DRC to the bloc. Several European states have recently taken measures against Rwanda. The UK and Germany have withheld development aid in a bid to push Kigali to cut its alleged support for M23.

Kigali has responded with defiance and has also severed diplomatic relations with Belgium, a former colonial power in Rwanda and the DRC. Kigali accuses Belgium of using “lies and manipulation to secure an unjustified hostile opinion of Rwanda.”Coltan boom coincided with escalation in warGlobal Witness says its analysis of trade data, customs documents and interviews with coltan smugglers suggests a significant proportion of the coltan Traxys has bought from Rwanda is connected to the ongoing war in eastern DRC.

It says at the end of 2023 it was already clear that conflict coltan from the Masisi area was regularly smuggled to the country and laundered into supply chains, according to UN experts.A sample of unrefined coltan on display at an unnamed location in eastern DRC. COURTESY PHOTO/ GLOBAL WITNESSThe increase in exports coincided with the escalation of the war in North Kivu and increased smuggling of conflict coltan from Rubaya, further suggesting that an important share of African Panther’s 2024 exports was smuggled from conflict zones in DRC.

One trader told Global Witness that the rebel group M23 which recently gained huge chunks of territory demanded a tax of 15% of the selling price.In February, this year, Rwandan-backed armed group M23 continued its warfare conquering Bukavu, a city of over one million and the capital of South Kivu province – just weeks after occupying Goma, the largest city in eastern Congo. Global Witness’s investigation notes that: “M23 is to an important part financed by exploiting coltan in the Rubaya area, which has been smuggled to Rwanda in large volumes.

”M23 cashes-in on smuggled coltanGlobal Witness says, according to its investigation, the Rwanda-backed M23 has profited from coltan mined in Rubaya from early 2024 by controlling a major transport route, and by taking full control of the area’s mines that produce around 15% of the world’s tantalum.According to UN experts, the ore trade has provided M23 a revenue estimated at US$800,000 (Shs 2.9 billion) per month.

“As major donors, the EU and its member states have considerable clout over Rwanda. The EU’s values and principles command it to freeze development assistance to Rwanda until Rwanda withdraws its troops from DRC and stops all support to M23,” said Kopp, the Senior Campaigner at Global Witness.In 2023 the European Commission’s President Ursula von der Leyen discussed a critical raw materials deal with Rwanda’s President Kagame.

This led to the raw material strategic partnership which was signed in February 2024.It is supposed to allow the EU to better access raw materials from Rwanda, including the coltan-derived tantalum, which the EU defines as a critical raw material. Yet this Global Witness investigation indicates that the EU has not developed sufficient safeguards to keep conflict minerals from entering its borders.

In February, the European Parliament said insufficient action has been taken to address the crisis in the DRC’s east and Commissioner Kaja Kallas, the EU’s top diplomat, vowed that the minerals agreement will be reviewed. On March 17, the European Commission sanctioned M23 leaders, Rwandan army officers and a company connected to human rights abuses in DRC.ContaminatedRwandan official figures show coltan exports have doubled from around 1,000 tonnes in 2021 to 2,000 tonnes in 2023.

The rate of exports further increased during 2024 when exports for the first quarter were a record high, totalling more than 630 tonnes.A recent UN Group of Experts report noted that between May and October 2024 at least 120 tonnes of coltan were smuggled monthly from Rubaya to Rwanda, leading to the “largest contamination of mineral supply chains” in the African Great Lakes Region recorded over the last decade.The UN and NGOs have pointed out that Rwanda’s mineral export figures do not correspond with its actual production, even before the latest surge in exports.

The country has been accused of exporting looted and smuggled coltan from DRC for over two decades.For context, much of the coltan in the region is mined artisanally, particularly in the North and South Kivu regions of DRC. When you add the fact that this region is infested with armed groups, regulating mining of the mineral is almost impossible.

Experts add that some multi-national corporations who have set up shop in the region also fuel smuggling by turning a blind eye to the origin of the coltan they purchase.A recent United Nations investigation revealed that many trading posts knowingly purchase coltan from areas controlled by armed groups and exploit the distinction between them and traders to claim ignorance of the ore’s origin.According to the report, the M23 rebels fraudulently exported at least 150 metric tonnes of coltan to Rwanda in 2024, leading to the largest contamination of the Great Lakes Region’s mineral supply chain on record.

The flows started after the M23 rebels seized the Rubaya area, which produces much of the coltan, following intense fighting in April, last year. M23’s control of transport routes from Rubaya to Rwanda led to the Rubaya-mined coltan mixing with Rwandan production, the UN Security Council’s Group of Experts said in the report published on Jan.8, this year.

“This constitutes the most important contamination of supply chains with ineligible minerals recorded in the Great Lakes region over the last decade,” the report noted.The report said the rebels established a so-called mining ministry in the occupied territory and ensured a monopoly for the export of coltan from Rubaya.On the ground, the rebels doubled the wages of artisanal miners to convince them to keep working in Rubaya and oversaw forced labour to make roads more motorable for trucks.

They also patrolled the town and its mining sites to make sure minerals were only sold to authorized Congolese and Rwandan traders, it said.In December, last year, Congo filed criminal complaints against AAPL.O (Apple Inc.

) subsidiaries in France and Belgium, accusing the tech giant of using conflict minerals in its supply chain. Apple disputes the allegations and says it has directed its suppliers not to use the minerals in question sourced from Congo and Rwanda.Traxys’ responseTraxys dismissed the Global Witness investigation noting that its coltan does not originate from Rubaya and does not fund M23.

The company said it is “firmly committed to working only with responsible supply chains when sourcing minerals from conflict-affected and high-risk areas.”It also provided details of its due diligence measures, which include measures such as mine visits, plausibility checks, frequent communication with African Panther and knowing African Panther’s suppliers.However, Global Witness says some of the companies Traxys named in its response as suppliers to African Panther already have a checkered history of sourcing minerals from the region.

One of the companies Traxys claimed in its response was a supplier to African Panther was cited by a UN expert report in 2012 as selling minerals labelled as originating from a mine where no actual mining was taking place and another one was reported in 2008 of buying conflict minerals in DRC.M23 sentry watching over an unnamed artisanal coltan mine in eastern DRC. A recent Global Witness investigation says the rebel group has been earning about US$800,000 per month from smuggled coltan sales.

COURTESY PHOTO.In its response to the investigation, African Panther denied that smuggled coltan from Rubaya was in its supply chain. The firm said it had visited 48 of its 70 suppliers in 2024, conducting mine inspections and risk assessment.

However, it did not name any suppliers and failed to answer Global Witness’ question in regards to which mines it sourced its coltan.African Panther referred to the COVID-19 pandemic and limitations in capital as reasons why its coltan exports were lower between 2020 and 2023, although Global Witness notes that African Panther’s coltan exports before COVID-19 were significantly below the 2024 levels.Traxys and African Panther both also asserted that they verify the origin of the coltan they buy by checking the ratio of tantalum and niobium, two elements of coltan.

They say that coltan from Rubaya, referred to as “white coltan,” contains more tantalum and less niobium than the “black coltan” from Rwanda.Traxys says that when buying from African Panther, Traxys always appoints independent surveyors to sample and assay each consignment and take photographic evidence of the colour and appearance of the material.”On this point, Global Witness notes that, according to an academic study, the tantalum grades vary widely across artisanal coltan mines in Rwanda and two geologists who have worked on conflict minerals in the African Great Lakes Region for several years told Global Witness that the same applies for niobium.

Furthermore, a UN group of experts report cited evidence in 2015 that, once in Rwanda, “white coltan” from DRC is routinely darkened or mixed with black coltan produced in Rwanda as a method of disguising the origin of smuggled minerals.This account is supported by the two geologists, who told Global Witness that exporters could simply blend concentrates from different sources to achieve a desired target grade in an export shipment.Traxys also said that all deliveries of coltan from African Panther to Traxys are tagged by “industry-accepted traceability providers.

”However, a 2022 Global Witness report found that the dominant traceability system in Rwanda, the ITSCI, of which both Traxys and African Panther are members appears to have been widely used to launder smuggled minerals in Rwanda estimated to account for around 90% of exported tantalum, tin and tungsten in its initial years.Nothing newBwesigye Don Binyina, the Executive Director of the Africa Centre for Energy and Mineral Policy (ACEMP), a Kampala-based non-profit, told The Independent on April 23 that there is nothing new and nothing surprising about the Global Witness report.“Rwanda knows the truth, the EU knows the truth, Traxys knows the truth.

The M23 knows the truth, regional and international NGOs, the UN Group of Experts, DRC and the whole ICGLR (International Conference on the Great Lakes Region) know the truth,” he told The Independent.“The truth is that Rwanda’s mineral economy is built on bloody conflict minerals, most especially coltan from the Masisi mines in Rubaya. This has been going on for decades.

Foreign sourced traceability service providers such as ITSCI only serve to legitimise an otherwise illicit mineral supply chain.”Bwesigye says “co-mingling of dirty bloody coltan from eastern DR Congo continues to thrive in the absence of analytical finger printing technology to confirm the geological origin of conflict entering global supply chains.”He says there is need to evaluate the actual capacity of the 3TGs (tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold) mines in Rwanda against their monthly and annual materials production.

Whoever controls the coltan mines in Masisi controls the revenue stream and therefore the ability to sustain the conflict in the region.Binyina told The Independent that addressing the eastern DRC conflict starts with tackling the illicit mineral supply chains, mineral exporters and refiners sourcing the 3TGs from Rwanda.“The EU is on the right path but needs to do more than merely sanctioning the Rwandan government.

All supply chain actors from the mines to end product users such as Apple, Boeing and other downstream actors need to be held accountable for sustaining the bloodbath in eastern DRC.”Going forward, Global Witness has called for Rwanda to “immediately withdraw its troops from DRC and cease all support to M23. “The EU and other governments should consider further sanctions of commanders of M23 and senior Rwandan officials responsible for abuses as well as companies profiteering from conflict resources.

”The Global Witness further recommended to the EU to enforce its conflict minerals regulation, noting that the DRC and Rwanda should pursue negotiations in the framework of the Luanda and Nairobi peace processes.However, Bwesigye told The Independent that Global Witness’s recommendations are “the same, same recommendations.”“I would say, that as long as the EU and its companies continue to source and admit conflict minerals from Rwanda into the EU markets, very little will change.

” Bwesigye told The Independent that there is need for the EU and the international community to engage the DRC government directly in addressing the current creation of a state within a state under the M23-Rwanda regime in Goma.“I would recommend a complete ban on imported 3TGs from EU companies stationed in Rwanda. The EU could also deploy expert mineral inspectors and investigators in 3TGs mines in Rwanda to verify and confirm that indeed all minerals sourced from Rwanda originate from their mines and not M23-affiliated conflict supply chains.

”Congolese civil society responseMeanwhile, Pecos Kulihoshi Musikami, a Congolese civil society activist working with COJESKI, a Goma-based refugee support NGO says he finds Global Witness’s recommendations “cheap and simplistic.”“Some of us are not so much into the cheap blaming and solutions of the European Union, or blaming the companies in Europe, blaming Rwanda, and calling upon these countries to be merciful to us and stop the conflict,” he told The Independent on April 25.“These companies are in business and, as companies they have to do business, and they have to look for the minerals where the minerals are.

So that’s the simplest way of looking at our situation..”Kulihoshi told The Independent that the Congolese’s attention is turning to the role of the DRC government in protecting its territory, people and minerals.

“Remember, M23 (re-) started the war in April 2022 that side of Bunagana, and Rutshuru. We didn’t have the minerals that side.”“They (M23) remained that side for over two years.

They then captured Rubaya, which is the big centre for the minerals you are talking about, one year back. The question is: Why didn’t DRC protect its minerals? Why couldn’t it protect its land? Why does DRC leave the country unprotected, and yet it knows that foreigners want what is there? I think the DRC government needs to also shoulder some responsibility for the current crisis, and I don’t see it in the investigation of Global Witness.”Kulihoshi added: “I know there is a moral part of the companies in Europe, there is a moral part of the European Union, there is a moral part of Rwanda but this doesn’t mean that the DRC government is not liable for the current crisis.

We have to apply pressure on the DRC government to take strong measures to ensure that DRC land, its minerals, and its people are protected.”“Let me give you an example. In Rubaya, where the minerals are exploited, it’s very far.

The minerals do transit on the road which is about 80km up to the border of Rwanda, and these minerals transit on these roads every day. These roads have been, for a long time, under the control of the Congolese army or the Congolese government.”“We have the Governor in Goma where the minerals transit before crossing into Rwanda via Gisenyi.

The governor was there before the M23 captured Goma recently. The question is what were the Congolese authorities doing in order to stop these minerals being smuggled into Rwanda?”“If you look at the whole trajectory of the problem; the people protecting the mines, the people digging the minerals, they are Congolese. Those involved in taking the minerals up to Rwanda, they are Congolese.

So why can’t we engage to change all this?”“As long as we are not addressing these issues; applying pressure on the government of the DRC to assume its responsibility and ensure that the government is protecting its minerals, we shall continue making these cheap and simplistic judgement and simplistic advocacy,” Kulihoshi told The Independent via WhatsApp.Share on: WhatsAppThe post EU companies fueling minerals smuggling in DRC appeared first on The Independent Uganda:..