US firm Alphamin resumes tin mining in M23 zone after Boulos visit

Zawya

11-04-2025

American mining firm Alphamin has resumed operations in M23-occupied Walikale in eastern Congo, following the visit of Donald Trump's envoy to the Great Lakes region.
In a press briefing in Kigali, Rwanda, on Tuesday evening, Trump's senior adviser for Africa, Massad Boulos, announced that his visit to the region was partly to help push the resumption of mining in Alphamin-controlled tin mines, which the miner abandoned in early March as the rebels advanced."We've seen in the last three weeks Alphamin has had to shut down operations, which affected the global market for tin specifically. It is very sad to see such a large operation employing thousands and thousands of people, helping the community and the country it operates in, including neighbouring countries, shut down operations,' Boulos said after meeting with President Felix Tshisekedi."We've seen the progress made in recent days, and that's excellent. We hope that the company will resume or make some announcement soon with regards to resuming their operations. We definitely encourage them to resume,' he said.
On Wednesday, Alphamin Resources Corp announced a phased resumption of operations at the Bisie tin mine in Walikale District.'This decision was made after the withdrawal of insurgents eastward from the town of Walikale towards the towns of Nyabiondo and Masisi, more than 130km to the east of the Company's mine site. The company intends to redeploy employees as part of a plan to restart tin production in phases while it continues to monitor the security situation. The mine is adequately supplied with consumables and spares to support the resumption of production,' it said in a statement.'Following the orderly evacuation of the mine during mid-March 2025, the care and maintenance activities and tin concentrate export logistics continued without interruption. During the period 1 January 2025 to 8 April 2025, 4,500 tonnes of contained tin sold and exported, with 280 tonnes still in transit and limited concentrate stock currently on hand. Contained tin production of 4,270 tonnes was achieved during Q1 2025 until operations ceased on 13 March 2025 due to security concerns.'On ongoing dialogue efforts between the Congolese government and M23, he said: "We appreciate the dialogue that is ongoing, these are purely internal issues we hope they continue with the dialogue and continue in the right direction as we have seen recently. These are details that are being sorted by the parties in question and we encourage that. Our role is to encourage, to help in any way we can to support these talks and dialogue, we appreciate all the steps taken in this direction and we hope to see some positive results soon.'Boulos did not divulge details of the US's involvement in the talks mediated by Qatar. Previously, Washington has used back channels to influence meetings on the conflict in Qatar, between Rwanda and the DRC.
The US is applying pressure on M23 and Rwanda Defence Forces to pull back from Northern Kivu, and Congolese army, FARDC, to stop using drones to bomb M23 positions, Boulos said."We are not involved in these details -- these are internal matters that they are engaged in dialogue about, it's not a question of pressure or no pressure it's a question of peace."We would like to see peace achieved, there are some good signs of hope in this regard, we would to see a lasting peace and stability in the region and within DRC and we encourage all steps in this direction.'
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Patrick Ilunga