A new gold mountain has been discovered in the Congolese province of South Kivu and is luring thousands of people to the area to mine for gold.
South Kivu Mining Minister Venant Burume said the discovery of ore containing gold was discovered at the end of February. Not long after the discovery, many people including the Congolese armed forces (FARDC) came to the scene.
The location of the mountain that contains gold is in the village of Luhihi, which is 50 kilometers from the provincial capital Bukavu, quoted from Unilad.
Government Stops Mining Activities Temporarily
The local government has temporarily suspended mining activities in the area. In a warrant ordered merchants, miners and members of the Congolese armed forces to leave the mine site.
The termination is aimed at identifying the miners and ensuring they are properly registered with the mining administration.
Until now all mining activities have been postponed until further notice, citing Timesnownews.
Gold is one of the resources known as ‘conflict material’ in the country. According to one study, armed groups were involved in mining and forced others to mine, as well as collecting taxes from the miners.
Armed groups also smuggle and trade the illegally mined gold. One of the proceeds from selling the gold was used to buy weapons or pay the warriors’ salaries.
Earlier a video that went viral on social media saw many Congolese digging up the ground with shovels and collecting the soil into a container. The footage shows that they gained a lot of gold when they separated land from water.
Some people were even seen using their bare hands to pick up the land that contained gold in that location.
A newspaper reported that the soil on the mountain was estimated to be ’60 to 90 percent ‘gold. However, there is no further information regarding the amount and quality of gold found on the mountain.
