KINSHASA (Reuters) - Illegal miners in Democratic Republic of Congo burned trucks and stole copper from the $2 billion Tenke Fungurume mine in a dispute with Freeport-McMoRan(FCX.N), the country's largest foreign investor, a provincial minister said.
Illegal mining is widespread throughout the mineral-rich country as close to 1 million individuals working on their own dig land that is in many cases privately owned, pitting them against foreign-owned firms and adding to investor woes in Congo's difficult business climate.
"On Monday illegal miners squatting on Tenke Fungurume blocked the route, vandalised their offices, stole their computers and burned three trucks, looting the copper cathodes in one of them," provincial interior minister Jean-Marie Dikanga told Reuters on Tuesday.
Dikanga said the trouble started after police stopped two trucks filled with material mined by illegal diggers that were leaving the site of the Tenke Fungurume copper and cobalt mine in the southern Katanga province.
"They were expecting jobs, but they didn't get them, so now they have decided to go to war against the company," Georges Bukundu, head of the local branch of NGO Southern African Resource Watch, told Reuters.
"It was a massive riot, and there is now a big backlog of trucks carrying minerals from all the mines nearby since that road is the artery for all of them on the route out (to Zambia)," said a security analyst who did not want to be named.
More than 120 police were sent to calm the mob of about 2,000 protesting miners, of whom 32 have been arrested, said Dikanga. He said the main road had reopened.
"No TFM employees were hurt, but several policemen received minor injuries," said a statement from Tenke Fungurume Mining, adding that its operations had not been affected.
"We want to give a strong signal to business that we are backing them," added Dikanga.
Congo is rated 182 out of 183 countries for doing business by the World Bank.
Phoenix, Arizona-based Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc has yet to resolve a protracted dispute about the details of its contract with the government, leaving its expansion plans in doubt.
Gold companies including Banro (BAA.TO), AngloGold Ashanti (ANGJ.J) and Randgold Resources (RRS.L), which all have industrial mines under development in the east of the country, also face regular incursions from illegal miners.
(Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Jane Baird)
