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Disputed Manono lithium mining project in DRC sparks concern

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LUBUMBASHI, Democratic Republic of Congo — In Manono, a town in the province of Tanganyika, in the northern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) Katanga region, a mining project has still not broken ground, more than two years after the confirmation of a sizeable lithium deposit. Lithium has been in high demand worldwide for about a decade for the production of lithium batteries — the best electrical energy storage system currently available. The prospecting of the Manono deposit has brought hope that infrastructure such as roads will be developed and jobs will be created for local residents. Thus far, agriculture has remained the primary economic activity in Manono and the surrounding region. Young people, however, are turning away from farming in a quest to earn quick money. They climb down into hand-dug, underground galleries looking for cassiterite, another popular mineral in the electronics industry, in demand among Indian and Chinese buyers, who have established trading posts on site. An artisanal miner in North Kivu holds cassiterite crystals, from which tin can be extracted: young people in Manono also dig for this mineral to sell to traders. Image by Laura Heaton/Enough Project via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0). However, Dathcom Mining SA, a company created specifically for the lithium mining project, still has not begun operating, and its chances of doing so are decreasing. This is because the Congolese government has taken interest in another partner, the Chinese mining giant Zijin, which already operates copper and cobalt mines in Katanga.…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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