Pact receives grant to secure critical mineral supply chains in the Democratic Republic of Congo

The U.S. Department of Labor has awarded Pact a $7 million cooperative agreement to eliminate labor exploitation in key mineral supply chains that are essential to U.S. manufacturing, energy production, and national security. The project, Madini Safi, or "Fair Minerals" in Swahili, will focus on combatting child and forced labor in the cobalt, copper, tantalum, tin, and tungsten supply chains of the Democratic Republic of Congo. 

Child labor and forced labor are highly prevalent in DRC’s mining sector. These egregious labor practices create ongoing and lasting harm to the individuals involved, particularly young people. They also violate U.S., global, and DRC labor regulations and undermine American competitiveness to secure critical minerals. U.S. mining, trading, and investment companies in DRC mineral supply chains face unfair competition as they are held to higher labor standards than rival companies who reside in weaker regulatory countries. 

The project will improve the labor conditions of vulnerable Congolese individuals and communities, create access to transparent and reliable sources of critical minerals, and protect American industries from supply disruptions, reputational risk, and legal liability. Specifically, the project will focus on strengthening labor law implementation and enforcement across large-scale and artisanal and small-scale mining. Efforts will be focused in Haut-Katanga and Lualaba provinces, where the production of critical minerals is especially high and labor violations are well documented. 

“We are thrilled to partner with the U.S. Department of Labor to secure responsible critical mineral supply chains, a field that we have long contributed to,” says Michèle Laird, Chief Programs Officer at Pact. “By working closely with the DRC government and other stakeholders to strengthen DRC’s existing systems and capacity for combatting labor violations, we can ensure improved conditions and lasting impact through country ownership.”

Pact brings a deep understanding of the issues related to critical mineral supply chains, particularly in DRC. For more than two decades, Pact has partnered with national and local governments, private companies, and mining communities in DRC to make artisanal and small-scale mining safer, more formalized, and productive, and free of abuses like child and forced labor. More broadly, the organization has worked for decades to address child labor, forced labor, and other labor rights violations in countries across Latin America, Africa, and Asia.

The project will be implemented in partnership with Initiative des Femmes Entrepreneurs pour le Développement Durable, a DRC-based organization with deep expertise addressing child and forced labor in mineral supply chains, as well as University of Lubumbashi, a research university specializing in mineral supply chain research, and Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance, a multistakeholder certification system that sets global standards for responsible industrial-scale mining.