This archive report was first published on 2 July 2019.
On Tuesday, an estimated 2,000 miners at the Kamoto Copper Company (KCC) concession, majority-owned by a subsidiary of Glencore, refused to leave the site despite a government promise to remove them.
The miners' defiance comes after a landslide last Thursday killed 43 people and prompted the government to vow to evict the miners.
According to General John Numbi, the army's inspector general, reconnaissance teams were on the ground, and an operation to clear the miners was set to begin on Tuesday.
However, Delphin Monga, provincial secretary of the UCDT union, which represents KCC employees, said miners inside the concession continued to work undisturbed, with some even throwing rocks at company vehicles.
"The miners have come back in even larger numbers than usual," Monga said.
Local and international activists have warned that evicting the miners by force could lead to violence and rights abuses, and that expulsion does nothing to address underlying factors such as poverty and unemployment that push people to brave dangerous conditions in mines.
"These artisanal miners merely try to eke out a living and sending in the army against them would be completely irresponsible," said Sarah Jackson, a regional official for Amnesty International.
Glencore, based in Switzerland and listed in London, declined to comment on the situation.
