Agreement allows artisanal mining to resume at Mulondo
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on Actualité.cd
The COMIKAN cooperative will be able to resume artisanal mining at Mulondo, in Lualaba, after an agreement gave it two mining plots ceded by PAJECLEM. The compromise, overseen on 2 November by Mines Minister Louis Watum Kabamba, comes a year after a trench collapse killed around 30 miners, reports Actualite.cd.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Minister of Mines, Louis Watum Kabamba, oversaw the implementation on Monday, 2 November, of an agreement allowing the artisanal mining cooperative COMIKAN to resume operations in Mulondo, in Mutshatsha territory, Lualaba. Mining company PAJECLEM is to make two mining plots available to the cooperative, reports Actualite.cd.
The agreement defines the area reserved for artisanal miners, while PAJECLEM retains its industrial operations across the rest of the site. The minister inspected the areas concerned with the provincial minister of mines and a commission tasked with cleaning up the sector, and issued guidance on how to manage the arrangement.
Artisanal mining had been suspended for more than a year amid disagreements between COMIKAN and PAJECLEM, which took over operations previously carried out by CHEMAF. The site was struck by tragedy in November 2025 when a trench collapsed after a panic, killing around 30 artisanal miners. COMIKAN’s managing director welcomed the agreement and called on miners to comply with the rules governing their activities.
