Glencore denies illegally-mined mineral allegations

[LesCrozes]

Glencore denies illegally-mined mineral allegations

Commodities giant Glencore denied Monday the claims of two Swiss groups that it was receiving minerals extracted illegally from a mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The Swiss charities Bread for All and Swiss Catholic Lenten Fund pointed their fingers at the Tilwezembe mine in the DRC's southern Katanga province where they say minors were working in "appalling" conditions.
The site is a concession of the Kamoto Copper Company, a joint venture owned by Katanga, which is 75 percent owned by Glencore.
Mining was officially suspended there in 2008 due to the financial crisis but more than 1,600 "artisanal" or independent miners "are extracting ore, practically with their bare hands and at risk to their lives," and selling it to a trader called Misa Mining, the two Swiss groups said in a report.
They added that about 700 minors aged between 14 and 17 worked in the mine.
"Working conditions in Tilwezembe are appalling: child labour, accidents, problems of hygiene or even manipulation of prices and weights are everyday practice," said the study.
Glencore, based in Baar in central Switzerland and with a 2011 turnover of $186 billion, said it did not have any involvement in artisanal mining in DRC.
The company said Tilwezembe was invaded overnight in 2010 by hundreds of these miners.
"We are not involved at all in the mining activity currently going on there," a spokesman told AFP.
"We are in talks with the government on how best to handle the situation at Tilwezembe and have asked the authorities for help to remove these artisanal miners."
Glencore said it was proceeding with caution after previous attempts by other companies to remove artisanal miners elsewhere resulted in violence and in some cases deaths.
The report criticised Glencore for allegedly profiting from the independent miners.
It claimed that the Glencore subsidiary Mopani in Zambia received minerals via two Lebanese intermediaries, Misa Mining and Bazano Group, which profit from a monopoly and underpay the miners.
Glencore said it operated a computerised system to record and track each bag of minerals to ensure no material from Tilwezembe gets into its shipments and that Mopani only received material from the company's own operations in Katanga and Mutanda.