Over the past decade, artisanal and small-scale mining in the Eastern part of the DR Congo has undergone an unprecedented technological revolution, with the use of machines such as ball mills, motor pumps and dredges, and new techniques such as cyanidation. In a FWO-EOS funded research, carried out in 2021, a team of CEGEMI researchers has studied different dimensions of this “technological transformation”. Their findings have been gathered in a series of working papers published by IOB, University of Antwerp.

Divin-Luc Bikubanya and Ben Radley have written on « Productivité et profitabilité : une analyse comparative basée sur l’impact de la mécanisation dans l’EMAPE de l’or en RDC ».

This study provides a comparative analysis between the productivity of an artisanal production regime (Kadumwa) and a mechanised production regime (Kamituga). The first regime shows a production at least ten times higher than the second production regime. The full working paper (in French) can be accessed here.

Also see Kamundala, Marysse and Iragi’s article published in  Annuaire des Conjonctures 2014 on ‘Viabilité économique de l’exploitation artisanale de l’or au Sud-Kivu face à la compétition des entreprises minières internationales » here