Exploitation Of Natural Resources In The Democratic Republic of Congo
By Lynda Welch
John Cary’s (1805) “New Map Of Africa” depicting a continuous line of mountains stretching across the continent, below which is written “Unknown Parts”
The geology of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is very old, several billions of years old in fact and with many geological events. The disruption in the earth’s core caused by the considerable volcanic activity has led to its historical abundance of natural resources such as gold, diamonds and other valuable minerals. The discovery of these resources made Africa attractive as a continent for exploration.
Diamonds are created under enormous pressure deep within the Earth, between 150 and 700 km, and are carried to the surface in kimberlite eruptions. Kimberlite contains magma that has been mixed with many components picked up along the >150km journey to the surface. Diamonds are simply the passenger, and kimberlite is their transport [1].
Kimberlite is therefore an intrusive igneous rock containing the diamonds in its rock matrix. It forms in pipes and these pipes are the source of most of the world’s commercial diamond production. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, alluvial diamonds were formed in kimberlite pipes in the Late Cretaceous (100.5 to 66 million years ago) [2].
The first diamond was found in 1903 in the Mutendele Creek in Katanga (south-eastern DRC). The creek was a tributary of the Lualaba River, one of the headwaters of the Congo River. Further exploration led to the discovery of a large kimberlite field on the Kundelungu plateau in 1908. This field however was uneconomic, and the diamonds were very small, averaging 15 stones per carat [3].
Whilst open pit mining is the main diamond extraction technique throughout the world, in the DRC the main method of diamond extraction is alluvial and small-scale. Miners search through the sediments to acquire diamonds, which have left the original rock-matrix [4].
Collecting rubber in Lusambo Forest, Congo. Image courtesy of © Anti-Slavery International
Scientists at the Center for Astrophysics believe that gold was formed by the collision of two neutron stars [5] and was delivered to the molten Earth by asteroid collisions. The gold sank into the planetary core and over billions of years, this gold has returned to the surface through the mantle [6].
Gold was first discovered in the Ituri River in the north-eastern Congo in 1903 and exploitation of the gold began in 1905 with the opening of a mine. Gold was also extracted by the panning of river gravels. Between 1905 and 1919, mining was small scale, but in 1920, operation of the mine became industrialised, with underground reef mining, excavation and rock-crushing starting to take place.
Rubber (Landolphia owariensis) was abundant in the Congo and grows in wild vines in the jungle. In the 1890s the rubber was extracted by slashing the vines and the workers would then lather themselves with the rubber latex until it hardened. It could then be scraped off the skin, in a painful manner that took the workers hair (and sometimes their skin) with it and roll it into balls and transported it in wicker baskets [7]. In 1890 the area exported a modest 133,666 kg of rubber; by 1896, this same area exported ten times as much, 1,317,346 kg, making it the biggest rubber exporter in Africa [8].
Map of the Lever plantations in the Congo in the 1910s. Image courtesy of © Gloria Pallarès [9]
In the Congo Basin rainforest, on the banks of the Congo River, lies one of the largest and oldest palm oil plantations on the continent. In 1911, an English noble, Viscount William H Lever and his brother James acquired 750,000 hectares in the Belgian Congo, coming to control an area 50 times the city of London. Between 1910 and 1920, palm oil exports increased from 2,160 to 7,624 tons. The Lever brothers made soap, and their company eventually became Unilever in the 1920s [9].
About the Author
Lynda Welch is a Scarborough resident with a passion for geology and history. Researching this article has been enlightening and thought-provoking, and Lynda looks forward to continuing work on this important project.
References
Smit, V., and Shirey, B. (2019) ‘Kimberlites: Earth’s Diamond Delivery System’, Gems and Gemology, 55 (2). Accessed March 2022
Wikipedia (2021) Geology of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Accessed March 2022
Janse, A. J. A. B. (1995) ‘Diamond Sources in Africa: Part 1’, Gems and Gemology, 31 (4). Accessed March 2022
Galli, N., Chiarelli, D. D., D’Angelo, M., and Rulli, M. C. (2020) ‘Environmental Impacts of Diamond Mining in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’, EGU General Assembly 2020. Accessed March 2022
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (2013) ‘Earth's Gold Came from Colliding Dead Stars’. Accessed March 2022
University of Bristol (2011) "Where does all Earth's gold come from? Precious metals the result of meteorite bombardment, rock analysis finds," ScienceDaily. Accessed March 2022
Stanley, T. (2012) ‘Belgium’s Heart of Darkness’, History Today, 62 (10). Accessed March 2022
Jasanoff, M. (2017) How Heart of Darkness Revealed the Horror of Congo’s Rubber Trade: Conrad's Novel Led to Investigation (and Legislation) of Human Rights Abuses. Accessed March 2022
Pallarès, G. and Ngeunga, M. (2021) ‘DRC: A Polluting Palm Oil Business is Shaming European Developing Banks’, InfoCongo. Accessed March 2022
Image of people collecting rubber in Lusambo Forest courtesy of Anti-Slavery International Alice Seeley Harris photographed the atrocities occurring in the Belgian Congo while visiting with her husband John Harris. Both were active abolitionists, and the images played a significant role in the campaign against slavery in the Belgian Congo.