Immigration authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have deported seven Chinese nationals from the southern Lualaba Province after accusing them of buying minerals through an illicit network tied to state-allocated mining concessions.
The Direction Générale de Migration (DGM) carried out the expulsion on September 24 from Kolwezi International Airport, following inspections across several local mining sites, 7sur7 reported.
According to the provincial governorate dispatch cited by the outlet, the suspects were detained after being found purchasing raw minerals from artisanal diggers operating inside concessions officially assigned to state-owned private partners.
“With a view to restoring order in the mining sector and protecting sites belonging to private partners, we were instructed to return these seven Chinese nationals to the border,” an unnamed DGM official told 7sur7.cd. “They were illegally buying minerals from artisanal miners at sites officially allocated by the state to its partners,” the official added.
Other Congolese outlets reported that the operation involved mining concessions operated by Kamoto Copper Company (KCC) and Metalkol in Kolwezi, and described the case as part of broader checks on the regularity of mining activities and mineral provenance in Lualaba, a key copper and cobalt-producing region. The measure was presented as consistent with President Félix Tshisekedi’s drive to clean up the mining sector, a policy being enforced firmly in Lualaba under Governor Fifi Masuka Saini.
Illegal mineral trafficking remains widespread in the DRC, particularly in conflict-affected eastern, northern and southern provinces, where artisanal mining overlaps with smuggling routes and armed-group control.
Recent reporting by Amnesty International has accused Rwanda-backed M23 rebels of abuses against artisanal miners and of facilitating the trafficking of gold and coltan into Rwanda, underscoring the scale of illicit flows that Kinshasa says it is trying to curb.
