Congo gold mine collapse leaves 50 feared dead

The African country is both vast and mineral rich, making it one of the most difficult places on earth for mines to operate

Mining is the foundation stone of the Congolese economy. Reuters

At least 50 people are likely dead under the rubble of a collapsed gold mine near Kamituga in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, a local NGO said.

“Several miners were in the well which was buried and no one was able to get out. We're talking about fifty young people, ”said Emiliane Itongwa, president of the Women's Social Support and Supervision Initiative.

The DRC is both vast and mineral rich, making it one of the most difficult places on earth for mines to operate.

Most of them are set up in the eastern province of Katanga, the same region that was at the heart of a bloody civil war in the early 1960s when it tried to break away from the newly decolonised DRC.

Under its soil lies some of the largest, purest deposits of copper and cobalt, which now make up almost 90 per cent of the DRC's exports.