Introduction
Background
This report reviews information regarding approximately a thousand tonnes of cassiterite from the Bisie mines located in Walikale territory, North Kivu – the so-called ‘Bisie Mineral Stock’ (see textbox). This stock pre-dates the April 2015 establishment of ITRI’s Supply Chain Initiative (iTSCi) in Walikale territory.
Bisie Mineral Stock
The Bisie Mineral Stock encompasses about a thousand tons of cassiterite extracted by artisanal miners at Bisie mines, located on Alphamin Bisie Mining SA’s (ABM) exploitation permit no 13155, between November 2010 and June 2015. A number of bans on mining and the trade of minerals in this region, as well as some hesitance further down the supply chain to buy untagged minerals, have meant that, until late 2015, mineral production from this area has not been marketed. Instead, it has been stored in warehouses in Bisie, as well as in the trading towns of Ndjingala and Mubi (Walikale territory) and North Kivu’s provincial capital, Goma.
In June 2015, an iTSCi mission estimated the volume of the stock at 1,351,350 kg. However, by the end of the stock evacuation process, in December 2015, no more than a total of 980,650 kg had been evacuated. More detail on the Bisie Mineral Stock is provided in Chapter 2 of this report.
At the 8th OECD-ICGLR-UN Group of Experts Forum on Responsible Minerals Sourcing in November 2014 (Kinshasa), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) organised a side event to facilitate discussion between different stakeholders on the issue of the mineral stocks. This event was a response to the desire of the Congolese authorities to move the stocks through an official ‘stock clearance process.’ At the meeting, a number of potential solutions were discussed and a stock evacuation process suggested.
The process involved labelling the minerals with unique tags to inform potential buyers about the associated risks, as well as the clear identification of stakeholders in the process to ensure compliance with tax requirements. Furthermore, participants highlighted the need to ensure that these minerals be exported using a traditional certificate of origin issued by the Congolese authorities rather than an International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) certificate, for which these minerals could not qualify.
Additional conditions included a “clear public commitment whereby after this one-time only exemption, the Government will not provide any further exemptions for stocks, and that any trader or exporter will, at any point, have to demonstrate a minimum due diligence in line with the OECD Guidance on minerals and the ICGLR RCM in possession, or else the material it holds will be confiscated/seized by the government” and a “process could be considered whereby if any direct evidence is found that actually links the so-called ‘stocks’ to a non-state armed group or [to] serious abuses of human rights, it would be seized by the government.” This process was to make possible the potential sale of these minerals at fair prices.
As part of Pact’s on-the-ground monitoring activities, Pact developed a Security Report3 that documents the security situation prevailing at the Bisie mine, on the transport route and in Walikale territory from 2010 to the end of September 2015. The Security Report is intended as a reference for potential purchasers of the materials to contribute towards their decision-making process and reasonable due diligence and risk mitigation measures. Considering the complexity of the situation, the Conflict Free Sourcing Initiative (CFSI) contracted a third party to review the Security Report. The International Peace Information Service (IPIS) was chosen to undertake this third party review.
Key Points of the Pact Bisie Security Report
The following constitute the key findings of Pact’s security assessment concerning the exploitation of the Bisie mineral stock, as contained in the Bisie Security Report:
The period up to February 2012 is defined as “expected to be prior to mining of stock.” This period was found to involve:
• Interferences in mining and mineral trade, extortion of the population and the violation of human rights by rogue FARDC elements, as well as by the armed groups, NDC Sheka and FDLR. In providing more detail about interferences and extortion by each actor, the Bisie Security Report refers to different intervals during this overall period.
The period February 2012 to March 2015 is considered to be “relevant to mining of stock at the mine.” The Bisie Security Report refers to reports developed by international organisations in 2012 and 2013 on indirect and illegal taxation by FARDC, but states that no information was obtained from local stakeholders to confirm this taxation. At the end it summarises that this period was found to involve:
• At Bisie, looting, and some injuries resulting from a visit by non-state armed group Simba in August 2013 with no evidence of tampering with minerals.
• On the ‘transport route’ payments have been made “to state security agents, as agreed by all stakeholders and possibly to customary authorities,” and there were “reports of attacks by unidentified bandits”.
IPIS was informed by iTSCi that another report is being developed, a Mine Description Report, that includes information about the mine location, production, and plausibility (production capacity) which serves as a reference for exporters. Lastly, iTSCi commissioned Synergy Global Consulting to conduct an independent evaluation of the minerals evacuation process from Bisie to Goma. In its report, Synergy Global Consulting assesses the circumstances in which the process is being conducted against the OECD Due Diligence Guidance of Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict-affected and High-risk areas (DDG) and includes a list of open and closed incidents related to the stock clearance process.