Reports indicate that at least 32 people were killed on Saturday, November 15, after a makeshift bridge collapsed at the Kalando mine in Mulondo, Lualaba province, in the southeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The incident occurred when thousands of unauthorized miners forced their way into the copper and cobalt quarry despite a formal ban on access to the site.
Roy Kaumba Mayonde, Lualaba province’s interior minister, explained during a press conference that authorities had prohibited entry to the mine due to heavy rainfall and the risk of landslides. “Despite a formal ban on access to the site because of the heavy rain and the risk of a landslide, wildcat miners forced their way into the quarry,” Mayonde said. The bridge, which spanned a flooded trench, was a makeshift structure erected by the miners themselves to navigate the mining site.
According to a report from SAEMAPE, the DRC’s Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining Support and Guidance Service, the collapse was triggered by a panicked rush of miners across the bridge. The government agency stated that soldiers stationed at the site fired gunfire, which sparked panic among the crowd of illegal diggers. The frightened miners then rushed toward the bridge, overwhelming the unstable structure.
The report detailed that miners became “piled on top of each other, causing the deaths and injuries” when the bridge gave way under the weight and chaos. Two miners sustained bullet wounds during the incident, with one shot in the thigh and another in the hand. However, Mayonde stated that no miners died from gunshot wounds, though he did not address whether bullets caused non-fatal injuries.
Provincial authorities suspended operations at the mine on Sunday, November 16, following the disaster. The Kalando mine has been the center of a longstanding dispute between wildcat miners, a cooperative meant to organize digging operations, and the site’s legal operators, which reportedly have Chinese involvement. More than 10,000 wildcat miners operate at Kalando, according to Arthur Kabulo, provincial coordinator for the National Human Rights Commission.
The Initiative for the Protection of Human Rights has called for an independent investigation into the military’s role in the deaths, citing reports of clashes between miners and soldiers.
The DRC is the world’s largest producer of cobalt, a critical mineral used in lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, smartphones, and other electronic products. Chinese companies control approximately 80 percent of cobalt production in the central African nation. This global demand for minerals has made the DRC’s mining sector economically vital but also increasingly contentious.
Between 1.5 and 2 million people work as artisanal miners in the DRC, operating largely outside formal regulatory frameworks. These workers often labor in hazardous conditions without proper safety equipment or oversight. The country’s cobalt mining industry has long been plagued by accusations of child labor, unsafe working conditions, and corruption, issues that persist despite international scrutiny and calls for reform.
Accidents at mining sites are not uncommon in the DRC, where the unregulated artisanal mining sector feeds global demand for copper, cobalt, and other minerals. The lack of proper infrastructure, safety protocols, and regulatory enforcement leaves workers vulnerable to collapses, flooding, and other hazards. Many of these miners work in desperate economic circumstances, driven to dangerous sites by poverty and limited employment alternatives.
The incident highlights the ongoing tensions between artisanal miners seeking access to mineral-rich sites and companies holding legal mining concessions. Mayonde noted that mining companies in the DRC are “frequently victims of this type of invasion of their concessions by illegal miners,” pointing to the complex economic and social dynamics surrounding mineral extraction in the region.
Following the collapse, Congolese authorities issued a statement urging artisanal miners to consider the government’s alternative training programs in agribusiness. Officials framed these programs as an attempt to prevent the recurrence of such incidents by providing miners with different livelihood options outside the dangerous mining sector.
The broader context of mineral extraction in the DRC is complicated by decades of conflict and instability. The country’s mineral wealth has been central to the violence that has ravaged the eastern regions for more than three decades, involving government forces and various armed groups, including the Rwanda-backed M23 rebels. This ongoing conflict has contributed to an acute humanitarian crisis affecting millions of people.
The collapse at Kalando mine underscores the human cost of the global transition to electric vehicles and renewable energy technologies, which rely heavily on cobalt and other minerals extracted under often perilous conditions. As international demand for these materials continues to grow, questions persist about how to balance economic development with worker safety and human rights protections in resource-rich but impoverished nations like the DRC.
