Responsible Mineral Supply Chains

Artisanal mining communities lack incentives to align with global mining standards and do not realize benefits from responsible development. 

The OrigemA project in the Democratic Republic of Congo is testing a digitally enabled responsible diamond supply chain. This includes a range of interventions with artisanal and small-scale diamond mining cooperatives, regional and national government actors, communities, and private sector actors. 

RESOLVE provides capacity-building on responsible mining practices and installs solar microgrids and other equipment to provide internet access to participating miners and their communities. OrigemA also promotes gender equity and inclusion by providing dedicated agricultural training to women members of three artisanal diamond mining cooperatives in Kasai and central Kasai provinces. 

The direct beneficiaries are 350 artisanal miners, who are members of six diamond mining cooperatives in four communities with an estimated combined population of 40,000 people.

We work with a range of partners including Antwerp World Diamond Center (AWDC) and Everledger. AWDC brings together partners and donors, government to industry representatives and local communities. They support  DRC government agencies (CEEC "Centre d'Expertise, Evaluation en Certification" and SAEMAPE "Service d'Assistance et Encadrement de la Mine Artisanale et à Petite Echelle"). Together, they have established a protocol on exports, valuation, and royalties flowing back to the community. This ensures the diamonds receive a fair price, once they are put up for sale in the Antwerp diamond trade system.

Everledger brings experience with blockchain to show that transparency in the journey of a diamond from mine to market, not only generates fair prices but also demonstrates the positive impact these diamonds can have.

In politically unstable areas armed groups often exploit mineral resources, using forced labor to mine minerals, with proceeds used to buy weapons and fund military activity. These so-called 'conflict minerals', such as tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold, can find their way into our mobile phones, cars and jewelry.

In response to calls for action to address conflict minerals with capacity building to support responsible miners, RESOLVE worked with leaders in civil society, industry, and the U.S. government to establish the Public-Private Alliance for Responsible Minerals Trade (PPA). The PPA supports projects in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the surrounding Great Lakes Region of Central Africa (GLR) that improve the due diligence and governance systems needed for ethical supply chains. Funded projects bring in-region benefits and complement government initiatives, with a focus on developing tools and building civil society capacity to support responsible minerals sourcing and trading. We convene and facilitate timely dialogue among key regional and international actors.

The PPA has raised over $2 million in private sector contributions, which is deployed in parallel with more than $20 million in funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), focused on infrastructure and traceability. With this funding, the PPA has tested tools for enhanced upstream due diligence and reporting, made grants to assess models for collecting and disseminating due diligence data, and supported civil society training and mechanisms to monitor and report fraud and smuggling.

RESOLVE has served as secretariat for the PPA since its design and launch in 2011. We coordinate and lead strategic planning, project implementation, communications, and grant management. We facilitate the PPA’s decision-making as well as dialogue and problem-solving between the PPA and GLR-based leaders and stakeholders. Please visit the PPA webpage for additional details on impacts and activities.