The win-win "Zijin Model" for the Development of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) Mining Industry

Six years ago, it was just one of the suburbs of Coluvezi, surrounded by a small number of citizens, and the dim lights were shaky like stars in the night. Today, six years later, it has developed into one of the most dynamic areas of the city, where tens of thousands of people gather spontaneously, and bright lights light up the sky over the city all night. And all this is the change and hope brought by Zijin Mining in China.

Over the past six years, Musonoi Mining, invested and founded by this Chinese company in Lualaba Province, has not only completed a cumulative investment of about US $550 million, building the fourth largest copper mining enterprise in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). It has also created more than 2400 direct local jobs, paid a total of about $470 million in taxes and fees in accordance with the law, and spent a total of about $13 million on social responsibility. It can be said that the arrival of Zijin Mining has brought wings and vigorous power to accelerate regional development, as well as advanced Chinese technology and modern green mine development programs.

Efficiency: a model of China-Congo joint venture company

Musonoi Mining is 72% and 28% owned by Zijin Mining and Congo (Kinshasa) Mining Corporation respectively. Now it has an annual output of more than 100000 tons of copper and 1500 cobalt. It is the fourth largest copper mining enterprise in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

It is praised by Albert Yuma, chairman of the Mining Corporation, as "a model of the China-Congo joint venture" because of its high efficiency in the whole process from construction to operation.

Since the construction of the first phase of the project, Zijin Mining has actively introduced Chinese technology, Chinese standards and Chinese plans into the construction site in all directions. By constantly adjusting and optimizing the production process route, design and construction plan, the total investment of the project has not only been greatly reduced by about 50% compared with the original plan, but also the construction period has been reduced from 2.5 years to 2 years. It broke the shortest record for the construction and production of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) mine at that time.

At the end of March 2018, the construction of Musonoi Phase II project began. According to the priority control idea of "safety-quality-speed-cost", through scientific organization, precise scheduling and reversing the key points, the project completed the construction and completed the commissioning of the project in only 9 months, which once again exceeded the new speed of the construction of Chinese-funded enterprises, and also set a new record for the construction of mines in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

"what impresses me most about the company is that in the process of construction and development, although we will encounter all kinds of difficulties and challenges, we can always successfully achieve the set goals through effective innovation and change." Kirika Soyen Christelle, the administrative director of Musonoi's office, lamented this.

Behind the speed and miracle is the truth-seeking and pragmatic spirit of the Zijin people. For example, in the construction of the second phase of the project, they successively created a number of records, such as the fastest transit speed in South Africa (5 days), the fastest land transportation speed in Africa (8 days), the fastest speed of customs clearance and entry (27 hours), and so on; while the geometric qualified rate of nearly 6000 tons of steel structure under construction on site reached 100%, all the equipment was successfully installed and debugged at one time, and the welds of more than 200,000 meters of non-standard structures were successfully welded at one time without any leakage.

"over the past few years, I have seen the diligence and friendliness of the Chinese people. They are very adaptable and adaptable, especially when they work selflessly, work overtime and have no complaints. I like the way Chinese work very much now and enjoy working with them every day. Musonoy driver Ilunga Mwelwa Tre é sor recalled.

While constantly creating and refreshing the new speed of construction, Musonoi's production and operation level is also outstanding. The first phase and the second phase of the project meet the production standards and pay dividends to shareholders in the year when they are put into production, which is also very rare in the history of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Kinshasa) Mining Corporation.

Environmental protection: creating a precedent for ecological mining in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)

In the project construction planning, Zijin Mining intends to build Musonoi Mining into a green mine, creating a precedent in the 100-year mining history of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

At the beginning of 2018, Musonoi comprehensively launched the greening and beautification of the dump and tailings reservoir. However, due to the problems of soft soil, no fertility, difficult water storage, and easy erosion in the rainy season, the initial stage of planting grass seeds or planting vegetation encountered a "Waterloo", and the survival rate of the first batch of green plants was less than 10%.

"the soft soil and the construction season coincide with the rainy season, and transport vehicles often encounter traps. Greening work needs to rely on excavators or manual assistance to carry out, the overall progress has been slow. " Lin Weifa, deputy director of Musonoi Mining Plant, recalled.

In the face of difficulties, the company continues to carry out independent trial experiments, groping to adopt the laying of humus soil and other ways to comprehensively transform the slope soil, and then use artificial deep planting for greening. After several years of efforts, the total area of green plants planted on the slope of the dump and tailings reservoir is about 400000 square meters. At the same time, Musonoi has also carried out a comprehensive greening and beautification of the factory and living areas. at present, the coverage rate of greening area has exceeded 90%, with a total area of about 100000 square meters. Through continuous efforts, the once exposed mountain has been dressed in "green armor", and the company has been widely praised by local residents.

"the greening work carried out by Musonoi in recent years has effectively improved air quality and successfully protected surrounding residents from many infectious diseases. This is something I have never seen in any other company around the city of Coluvezi. " Local residents than Biladi Cooper said.

However, the construction of "green mine" lies not only in flocks of flowers and birds and shady trees, but also in green development and green transformation. At the end of 2018, Musonoi launched a special campaign for the treatment of smelting tail gas, which successfully reduced the SO2 and solid particulate matter targets to about 250mg / m2 and 58mg / m2, which is far better than the discharge standards of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and China. In addition, Musonoi also adhered to the "people-oriented" and vigorously promoted malaria prevention and control work. Through regular environmental hygiene sterilization, distribution of mosquito spray and mosquito net mosquito incense, etc., successfully reduced the average annual incidence rate of more than 30%, greatly reduced by about 80%, and effectively ensured the life, health and safety of employees.

"the biggest change that Musonoi has brought to my life and family is through all kinds of safety education and training in enterprises, anti-malaria knowledge training, novel coronavirus epidemic prevention and control training, and so on. so that my family and I have greatly improved their awareness of safety and environmental protection, protection awareness, protection ability, and so on." Christelle said.

Responsibility: paying nearly 500 million taxes to benefit the aborigines

Since entering the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) at the end of 2014, Zijin Mining, through its Musonoi, has always adhered to the original intention and mission of "developing the mining industry for the benefit of society", and has actively and consciously fulfilled its social responsibility. have contributed to regional infrastructure and social welfare development through donations, construction assistance, condolences and other forms.

According to incomplete statistics, Musonoi has spent about 13 million US dollars on social responsibility since 2015. Projects include donating municipal water supply wells, providing regular maintenance and maintenance services of municipal water supply system free of charge, providing emergency repair services of Electroweb without compensation (such as emergency repair of citywide power outages in November 2017 and March 2019), repairing MUTOSHI bridge, repairing municipal roads outside the mining area, donating teaching materials to surrounding schools, donating special funds for epidemic prevention, donating Earthquake disaster relief funds, and so on. In addition, the company also pays a total of about 470 million US dollars in taxes and fees in accordance with the law, which accounts for the highest proportion of all local mining enterprises.

Musonoi has done a lot of good deeds for the community in recent years, and has also donated many materials to the community, including rice noodles, grain and oil during the holidays, epidemic prevention kits during novel coronavirus's epidemic, books and stationery during International Children's Day's period, and so on. In short, the residents of our community are very grateful to the company. Musonoi has played a very important role in the development and daily life of our community and feels like family. " Said Lusila Kalonda Lucien, a resident of the local community.

Social enterprises work together to build a family and achieve win-win development in pairs. In order to better promote community construction and development, Musonoi, on the one hand, vigorously promoted the strategy of "localization of employment", creating nearly 2400 direct local jobs, of which local employees accounted for more than 86%. The proportion of local grass-roots and above managers reached 41.42%; on the other hand, the company also gives priority to community-age personnel when recruiting. At present, among the existing local employees, surrounding community personnel account for about 50%.

"Musonoi has provided a lot of job opportunities for young people in the community, such as my brother, who has been unemployed at home. After entering Musonoi to work, not only close to home, but also a generous salary is enough to support a family, my family is very grateful to the company. " Cooper said.

It is this kind of integrated development that makes the love of Musonoi of community residents to be deepened and consolidated unconsciously. During the "three-in-one" election in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) at the end of 2018 and early 2019, the surrounding communities took the initiative to set up a maintenance team of more than 200 people, and the team was led by village chiefs and chiefs to the company for accommodation and garrison. This has also become the most direct and effective means for the company to successfully deal with the crisis.

In order to further practice social responsibility and better serve community development. In February 2021, Musonoi signed the "Community Project Mission for 2021-2025" with eight communities around the mining area, with a planned investment of about 4.4 million US dollars over five years. More than 20 projects, including training schools, medical and health stations, professional farms, farmers' markets and municipal water supply facilities, have been donated.

Danny Banza (Dany Banza), itinerant ambassador of the President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, pointed out that "Zijin Mining is a company with a high sense of responsibility and mission. Musonoi, a subsidiary of Musonoi, has truly achieved the development of the mining industry for the benefit of the Congolese people by implementing the concept of sustainable development of the 'government-enterprise-society' trinity."

"developing the mining industry for the benefit of society" is not only the enterprise tenet of Zijin Mining and Musonoi, but also our eternal original intention and mission. Facing the future, we will always be based on the community, rely on the community, serve the community, and try our best to make contributions to the improvement of the living standards of the surrounding people, the promotion of regional infrastructure and the rapid economic development. At the same time, we will practice the concept of ESG more deeply, bearing in mind that green water and green mountains are Jinshan and Silver Mountains, and further protect the green mountains, blue skies and white clouds around the mining area, so as to truly achieve harmonious symbiosis between human and nature and harmonious coexistence between human and animals. " So said Zhang Xingxun, general manager of Musonoi.