Presentation by Dr. Michael Biryabarema, Director General, Rwanda Natural Resources Authority. Day 1 of the 6th ICGLR-OECD-UN GoE Forum on responsible mineral supply chains, 13 November 2013. Visit: http://mneguidelines.oecd.org/icglr-oecd-un-forum-kigali-2013.htm

1. Republic of Rwanda
Progress on Traceability and
Certification
November 2013

2. Outline
 Importance of the Mining Industry
 Good Practice and Transparent Issues;
 Issues of Concern;

3. Importance of the Mining Industry
•
Mining in Rwanda started in the 1930s, and for a larger part of this history has been
the largest export earner. For example(i) it contributed 42.5% of the exports in 1969
and 29% of the total exports in 2012 and (ii) in 1985 a tin smelter was constructed in
Kigali to smelt cassiterite mined in Rwanda;
•
The key mineral ores currently being mined and traded in Rwanda are cassiterite
(SnO2), wolframite (FeMnWO3), colombo-tantalite (Ta2O5, Nb2O5) and gold (Au) i.e.
“Conflict Minerals” according to the Dodd Frank Legislation;
The industry was privatized from 2006 and currently has more than two hundred
and fifty companies and cooperatives (mining, exploring and prospecting); and
mining is taking place at least 500 mine sites (verified by ITRI);
•
•
Currently, the Sector employs at least 20,000 people, excluding people working in
quarries;
•
Since 1999 the industry is growing at an average rate of more than 10% per year as
indicated in the graph below (in terms of revenue and volume);

4. Sector Growth
Export
earning
s
(Million Exports in
Volume
s of
Year US$)
(Tons)
1999
6.9
943
2000
12.6
1,012
2001
42.6
2,102
2002
15.9
2,083
2003
11.1
2,599
2004
29.3
5,082
2005
37.3
6,465
2006
37.0
6,187
2007
70.6
8,283
2008
94.0
7,364
2009
54.6
7,960
2010
71.0
8,406
2011 158.0
9,697
2012 136.3
7588

5. Growth in the number of permits over a period of two years
(Dec. 2011-Nov. 2013)

6. In pursuit of good practice in the mining industry, in additional to existing legal
framework CTC standards were introduced in 2009. A number of policies were
developed and are now being used to develop good practice
Principles
Standards
traceability,
transparency
Origin, fiscal obligations, revenue,
transparency, oppose corruption,
labour &
Working
conditions
salary level, child labour,
Workers organization, protective &
production means, health &
safety, training
Security
Capacity, risk assessment
Community
development
structured
dialogue, local business, integrated
support, free, prior
informed
consent, gender
Environment
EIA, waste disposal, provision for
rehabilitation

7. In the advent of Doss Frank in July 2010
Partnership with ITRI
An MoU was signed with ITRI in October 2010 to implement the iTSCi
scheme;
By 1st April 2011 we started tagging most of the mineral exports from
Rwanda under the iTSCi scheme and certainly later that year till now 100% of
all mineral exports from Rwanda are being tagged;
Internal movement of untagged minerals and importing of untagged minerals
from the surrounding countries became illegal by April 20112: A new
Ministerial Regulation had been passed in March 2011 to provide a legal
framework for this development;
Two baseline surveys have been conducted by ITRI on all operating mine
sites in the country since mineral tagging and bagging began and our mines
and exporters have undergone several audits by third parties (Channel
Research);

8.  Currently mineral concentrates from all mine sites in the country are being
sampled by ITRI to build a data base of approximate characteristics of
economic mineral ore deposits in Rwanda; a separate MoU for this exercise
exists;
 We are currently testing an electronic scanner (Personal Digital Assistant:
PDA) to lower the risks that may arise through data delivery delays and human
error in filling logbooks. It is currently being tested at several mines and the
initial results are very promising;
Proposed PDA to be used in
mineral tagging;
 Currently 95 GoR agents manage the tagging system at 547 mine
Sites with frequent supervision of iTSCi staff; 40 more are being
Recruited. The target is to increase the number further to 200;
 Incidents are reported in case of any suspected anomalies in the
supply chain; these are jointly investigated by the GoR (GMD) and the
iTSCi representatives; A Steering Committee, composed of representatives
from GoR, Civil Society, industry and iTSCi/ITRI is in place to over see the
process;
 iTSCi has a permanent presence in Rwanda with ……..staff

9. Production and Export Comparison

10. Implementation of the Regional Certification Mechanism (RCM)
 The Regional Mineral Certification Mechanism (RCM) manual has been
adopted in the Rwandan Legal Framework through a Ministerial regulation in
March 2012 (Signed by the ministers of Justice and Natural Resources);
 In preparations to issue the ICGLR mineral export certificates; (i) an MoU has
been signed between Rwanda Bureau of Standards (RBS) and Rwanda
Natural Resources Authority (RNRA) to implement the introduction of the
regional certificate;
 A comprehensive mine sites inspection document has been finalized and has
been tested; inspectors have been recruited and trained to complete the
template; (a copy of the booklet is available);
 A fully staffed Certification Unit has been established. It has developed all the
requirements and procedures; application forms, certificate, seal markings,
training of exporters, database formats, etc.; we have issued the first Export
Certificate to Rutongo Mines on 05/11/2013;
 A mineral chain evaluator has recently verified the Chain of Custody (CoC)
in some Rwandan operators and found no prohibition to give an ICGLR
Certificate to the evaluated companies, need for improvement not

11. Formalization of Artisanal Miners
•
Formation of mining cooperatives and their
umbrella organization; the National
Federation of Mining Cooperatives,
FECOMIRWA;
•
Constant training and constant inspection;
and also applying sanctions;
•
Developing the policy of forming alliances
with more capable partners; this is
progressing quickly;
•
Sensitization of financial institutions to
participate in the funding of the small scale
mining/processing and trading activities;
Improved Artisanal Mine :
HABATU Mining _Eastern
Province of Rwanda_April 2013
Meeting of RNRA/GMD inspectors with
miners, during a mine site Inspection
Exercise in Eastern Province of
Rwanda_April 2013

12. Certificate Sample

13. Analytical Finger Printing ; Future Progress
More than 300 Analytical Finger Printing (AFP) samples have been collected
from mine sites and about 50 of them have already been analyzed in Hannover
by BGR. We have collected and analyzed, in partnership with BGR, more
mineral finger printing samples than any other country in the world. Thanks to
corporation with BGR once again, we have a fully-fledged AFP sample
preparation laboratory and qualified staff to run it; more than 100 thin sections
have so far been prepared by GMD and be forward to BGR for analysis.

14. AFP (Analytical Fingerprint) for coltan, cassiterite, wolframite
Concentrate
Polished
section
Rutsiro/
Sebeya/
Giciye
Gatumba
Rutongo
Sn
Ntunga
Mineralogical
study
SEM / MLA
Geochemistry
& age
Mara
LA-ICP-MS
Bisesero
Nemba
Characteristic AFP concentrate features allow identification of source
region??

15. Challenges
 The certification is becoming more expensive under the current practice. Some of
mining activities in marginal areas made go out of business; the practice of stationing
permanently Government officials at mine sites which are expanding quickly will be
unsustainable in the long run; Companies need to gradually take responsibility of keeping
agreed upon standards alongside regular audits;
 No harmonization audit standards; this causes unnecessary expenses and interruption of
work;
 The use of logbooks for documentation create risks of human error and unnecessary
delays in in data transmission;
 The artisanal miners take relatively long to practice regular reporting and to adopt to
modern methods;
 (i) Lack of harmonized fiscal regimes in the region that continues to encourage attempts
at smuggling; (ii) attempts at internal smuggling are also a nuisance. The vigilance of all
concerned Government machinery has discouraged both;
 Current de-facto embargo on regional minerals by many US and European companies
arising from punitive Auditing requirements under Dodd Frank Legislation; these need to
be revised make them friendlier to business;

16. Changing destination of Rwandan Minerals

17. MURAKOZE
THANK YOU