…But the silence at Kolwezi and other mining areas in Katanga province will soon be broken. “The mining companies are on the diving board. They are coming back,” said Raf Costermans, an analyst with Groupe One, a Belgian advocacy group.
An international scramble for this central African treasure trove is under way, prompted by the end of the war and an imminent election. With copper prices at record highs, fuelled by demand in India and China, companies are competing to rehabilitate derelict sites. Kolwezi could again produce 500,000 tonnes a year of copper and cobalt, metal used in making steel.

Billions of dollars will be made. The question is whether the boom will benefit the citizens of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Their need is ravenous. Decades of misrule and conflict have left millions poor, malnourished and sick. More than 1,000 people die needlessly every day, according to the UN. Katanga’s bounty could help to rebuild a shattered state.

But if history is a guide the boom will benefit only the political elite and its cronies. Belgium’s King Leopold enslaved and plundered his African colony in the 19th century. Mobutu Sese Seko, the post-independence dictator, presided over three decades of kleptocracy. After he fell invaders and warlords, abetted by foreign companies, looted raw materials during the 1997-2002 war.
guardian.co.uk

“…a Belgian advocacy group…

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