A Congolese Escapade

A Congolese Escapade

                                     - Supratik Roy

I have a proclivity towards travelling and adventure and these are the major rationales that motivated me to pursue Geology as a career. So, when my institute issued a notice about some mining company based in the Democratic Republic of Congo, inviting students for a fully-funded internship in their country, I could not resist the crave of visiting Africa. My voyage began on the 8th of June, 2019. This was going to be my first overseas trip and not in the comforts of some luxurious country. It was going to be in the place where human civilization began, where there are people still detached from the comforts of city life, where there are wild animals still in their natural habitat.

The Democratic Republic of Congo is a country in the central part of the African continent. Despite having an unimaginable natural resource wealth, the country is fighting with poverty and diseases. A despondent colonial history, slavery, civil wars and systematic corruption have crippled the nation to the core of its spirit. However, things are slowly changing for the country and the new generation of educated and passionate Congolese will help them achieve their pipe dream.

A typical African landscape on the banks of the Congo river.

Geology is one of those professions which takes you to the rarest parts of the planet. I was posted deep inside the Congo Rainforest, near a small village named Mikengele. It was a typical African village with some shanty huts and lively people. The Congo River flows close to this village, acting as the source of water and a major source of food for the people in this area. The nearest hospital that could provide an anti-venom was hundreds of kilometres away and the road conditions only made it worse. 

The mining company had set foot here looking for cassiterite (Sn-ore), which is abundant in this country, along with many other conflict minerals like, cobalt, tungsten, coltan (columbite-tantalite), etc., which are responsible for Congo’s “resource curse”. As a Geologist, I was expected to help the company in the exploration planning and mapping of the concession area. The job was rather difficult because of several reasons including thick vegetation cover, venomous snakes, limited outcrops and language barrier. There were some Indian employees in the camp who taught me the life hacks of working in the forest and made my life easier in this otherwise hostile environment.

A lump of cassiterite extracted from the pegmatite belt.

The area was a part of the Mesoproterozoic Kibara belt. The major rock type was schist, regularly intruded by quartz veins that were present in two sets, regionally. These quartz veins were the primary source of cassiterite. Schist was overlain by a thick cover of alluvial and eluvial deposits, which hosted the secondary source of cassiterite. Pitting, logging and sampling at regularly spaced intervals, running along and across the strike of the bedding was a part of my daily routine, along with hiking around the area for mapping and identifying the structural controls. The other primary source of cassiterite was a pegmatite belt on the other side of the Congo river. I was accompanied by a professor from my institute for a few days. He taught me the tricks of the trade during his stay and was by far, the best companion to have on such a trip. Read the full story.