First Responsible and Conflict-Free Artisanal Gold Supply Chain Operational in Eastern Congo

Partnership Africa Canada (www.PACweb.org) announced the Just Gold project has successfully implemented a system to trace legal and conflict-free artisanal gold in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
 
The Just Gold project began as a pilot in Ituri Province in 2015. The announcement is a milestone for the project – moving it from the pilot stage – having proven a successful chain of custody from mine site to exporter. “After almost two years of testing the Just Gold project with an aim to develop a chain of custody and due diligence system for artisanal gold in DRC, we are excited to share news of our success,” said Joanne Lebert, Partnership Africa Canada’s Executive Director. “The Just Gold project can now move from a period of testing to implementation and ensuring we have a long-term, sustainable and viable solution for traceable, legal and conflict-free exports of artisanal gold from Congo,” said Lebert. “We look forward to sharing our lessons learned with key actors and to deepening our collaboration with the DRC Government.”
 
The Just Gold project creates incentives for artisanal gold miners to channel their product to legal exporters – and eventually responsible consumers – by offering fair and transparent pricing and by providing capacity-building, such as technical assistance to miners in return for legal sales. Miners are taught better exploitation techniques and offered Juts Gold project equipment, in return for which any gold produced must be tracked and sold through legal channels.
 
“Proving that artisanal gold in eastern Congo can be conflict-free, legal and traceable is a major step in responsible sourcing efforts in the Great Lakes region. The government of Democratic Republic of Congo is taking major strides in complying with regional standards and demonstrating how the implementation the OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains can contribute to progressive improvements in the sector, supporting artisanal gold men and women miners to enter international markets,” said Lebert.
 
Partnership Africa Canada signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Minister of Mines Martin Kabwelulu on September 2016, outlining support for the organization’s activities to strengthen natural resource governance. Specifically, the Ministry of Mines recognized the Just Gold project as a system of traceability and encouraged its implementation. Partnership Africa Canada has provided technical support to the Ministry since 2011.
 
Current activities in DRC include the Just Gold project, capacity building to implement both the International Conference on the Great Lakes (ICGLR) Regional Certification Mechanism (RCM) and the OECD Due Diligence Guidance applicable to high-value minerals, as well as support to civil society for monitoring and reporting on supply chain integrity.
 
Partnership Africa Canada has also undertaken research and analysis of the artisanal gold supply chain to understand women’s roles in the sector. Through sensitization and outreach, the Just Gold project improves awareness of women’s rights, and their right to access, control and benefit of resources. The project also supports and fosters women’s leadership opportunities through skills-building and training.
 
Partnership Africa Canada's work in DRC developed from its engagement as a technical partner to the ICGLR, providing capacity-building to implement the six tools developed by the ICGLR's Regional Initiative against the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources.
 
Funding for the Just Gold project and Partnership Africa Canada’s work in the Great Lakes region is provided by Global Affairs Canada. Additional funding for the Just Gold project is provided by USAID through the Capacity Building for Responsible Minerals Trade (CBRMT) project and International Organization for Migration.
Distributed by APO on behalf of Partnership Africa Canada (PAC).
 
www.APO-opa.com

Related articles:

04/2016

Conflict-free Minerals

A look behind the scenes

1 Introduction On 31.05.2014, companies registered in the US stock market were, for the first time, obliged to disclose to the Securities and Exchange Commission (Securities Exchange Commission =...

more
10/2022 Fairtrade project

Mining, processing and sale of tantalum in Liberia

1 Introduction Liberia is a relatively small state on the West African coast with a size of 111 369 km², that is, covering roughly the same area as the German states of Bavaria and...

more
04/2018

Metso hydrocyclones for gold project in northern Canada

Metso sold one hydrocyclone cluster with 3 MHCTM 250 hydrocyclones and a VTM 500 Vertimill® grinding mill to Agnico Eagle for its Meliadine gold project in Nunavut Territory, northern Canada. The...

more

Lithium in Africa: Another sleeping giant!

Many Germans associate Africa chiefly with chaos, war and hunger. But in the past ten years, many countries on the continent have shown stability. In particular, the West African nations have...

more
06/2013

Competition

African mining opportunities

1?Introduction A presentation by Dr. Dambisa Moyo at the “African Mining Indaba 2013”, the world‘s most important congress of the mining industry, with 7500 participants in February of this year,...

more