Mining in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Kolwezi or Kolwesi is the capital city of Lualaba Province in the south of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, west of Likasi. It has an airport and a railway to Lubumbashi. Just outside of Kolwezi there is the static inverter plant of the HVDC Inga-Shaba. The population is approximately 573,000.

thumb|upright|right|A piece of columbite–tantalite, size 6.0 × 2.5 × 2.1 cm Coltan (short for columbite–tantalite and known industrially as tantalite) is a dull black metallic ore from which the elements niobium and tantalum are extracted. The niobium-dominant mineral in coltan is columbite (after niobium's original name columbium), and the tantalum-dominant mineral is tantalite.

diamond mined in a war zone and sold to finance an insurgency, an invading army's war efforts, or a warlord's activity

resources extracted in a conflict zone and sold to perpetuate the fighting

Israeli billionaire businessman in natural resources and the founder and President of the DGI

Heterogenite is a natural tri-valent cobalt oxyhydroxide mineral. It is the most abundant oxidised cobalt mineral in the Katanga Copperbelt, a region in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. About 70% of known heterogenite is located in the DRC.

Overview of mining and the country's main mineral resources