Title: Mining Reform, Governance and the State in the Democratic Republic of Congo: The traces “conflict-mineral” policy left behind on natural resource governance in Katanga
Author/Institution: José A. Diemel – Erasmus University Rotterdam
Publication Year: 2018
José Diemel’s 2018 doctoral thesis investigates how international “conflict minerals” policies—particularly the Dodd-Frank Act (Section 1502) and OECD due diligence guidelines—reshaped mining governance in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Focusing on Katanga, Diemel demonstrates how global initiatives, designed to break the link between mineral revenues and armed conflict, filtered down into local governance systems with mixed outcomes. While reforms introduced new certification and traceability schemes, they often reinforced central state control and exacerbated inequalities between industrial mining firms and artisanal miners.
A key contribution of the research is its analysis of how conflict minerals reforms created new governance hierarchies. International pressure elevated certain actors—state agencies, international NGOs, and industrial mining companies—while marginalizing artisanal miners who lacked resources to comply with certification schemes. Diemel shows how these dynamics deepened dependency on external agendas and limited the space for Congolese communities to assert their own development priorities. Instead of dismantling exploitative structures, reforms often reproduced them in new forms, raising questions about who truly benefits from global “responsible sourcing” regimes.
This study provides critical context for current developments such as the U.S.–DRC–Rwanda minerals partnership. Diemel’s findings suggest that while trilateral frameworks may enhance supply chain security, they risk repeating past mistakes if they prioritize compliance and international market access over local empowerment. For such partnerships to succeed, reforms must move beyond top-down certification and integrate mechanisms that support artisanal miners, address corruption, and ensure that governance structures reflect the needs of Congolese communities. In this way, the thesis underscores that building secure mineral supply chains also requires building legitimate, inclusive governance at the local level.