Mines Minister Louis Watum Kabamba received representatives of mining cooperatives at the Ministry of Mines in Kinshasa, in a meeting focused on the implementation of the government's artisanal mining formalisation strategy. The discussion forms part of a sustained government effort to professionalise and legally structure the artisanal sector, which SAEMAPE — the state agency responsible for artisanal mining oversight — currently supervises across 1,415 cooperatives in 848 mining sites nationwide.
The government's national artisanal mining strategy rests on four pillars: the creation and operationalisation of Zones d'Exploitation Artisanale (ZEA), the professionalisation of mining cooperatives, legal access to mineral deposits, and full traceability of mineral products from extraction to export. Two ministerial orders — n°00235 of April 3, 2026 and n°00279 of May 5, 2026 — created the institutional framework for cooperative governance, establishing a commission for ZEA allocation and a monitoring committee for the "Protection Groupe" insurance scheme covering artisanal miners.
The meeting with cooperative representatives is consistent with Watum Kabamba's pattern of direct sectoral engagement. In April 2026, he completed a five-day field mission across Ituri, Bas-Uélé, and Maniema, consulting provincial authorities, cooperative operators, and artisanal miners. In Maniema — which accounts for approximately 40% of national artisanal gold production — he described illegal expatriate mining as a question of economic sovereignty and committed to reclassifying viable sites as ZEA for the exclusive benefit of Congolese cooperative members.
