The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)’s state diamond company, MIBA - the Bakwanga Mining Company is expected to revive its operations following a $5 million capital injection in August last year by President Felix Tshisekedi.
Africa News quoted managers at the mine as saying that although the capital injection from the government was inadequate it would help MIBA become ‘profitable’.
"Mining has resumed with a view to relaunching with the help of the government. Five million dollars, a payment that Gécamine gave to Miba,” said Raphael Mukadi Tshindundu, technical director of Miba. “The mine is operational, exploitation is underway, but at a minimal level."
However, a diamond buyer in the country was skeptical about the resumption of operations.
"If MIBA's activity had really resumed, we would have felt it, life would have resumed, money would flow. The government owes Miba a lot of money. It does not have the will to pay this debt,” said the diamond buyer identified as Alphonse Ilunga.
MIBA is 80%-owned by the DRC government while the remaining 20% stake is owned by an unnamed Belgian company.
The mine used to produce an average annual output of 6-million carats in the early 2000s, but this dipped to no more than 500,000 carats in 2008 and half of that in 2011.
Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau, Rough&Polished
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