The Villages near Fungurume

Tenke Fungurume Mining company (TFM), which is 57% owned by Freeport (the company that I work for) has a concession from the government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. My understanding is that they have allowed TFM to mine the property within the boundaries of the concession and TFM has to do a bunch of things for the people that live there. There are four villages that are within the boundaries of the concession. Here are some photos of the houses in the villages. Basically, they are one room grass huts. They don't have any water or electricity. It looked like they all had dirt floors. The cooking is done outside over small fires. The kids were still at home during the day so I assume they did not go to school. They had chickens and goats hanging around the houses. I am really amazed that there are people that live in those conditions. They were very happy and friendly. They waved at us when we drove by. There were a lot of little kids around the huts. As soon as they heard our trucks the parents and older children would make sure the little ones were out of the road.


So TFM built them all new homes. The new homes are made of brick and have a kitchen, living room and two bedrooms....and cement floors. They also provided outhouses with realy toilets and other washrooms where they can clean up. Of course, they also provided a big school. All of the houses are the same...except the chief's house, which is a little larger. The people seemed to be very happy to move to their new homes. They were trying to move in before the houses were completely finished.

Not all of the people live in these little villages. The town of Fungurume has several thousand people and the children go to school every day and a lot of the men and women are working or trying to get jobs at the mining operations. The houses are a little larger and more "modern" if that's the word.

Green Mountain

So, there's a mountain on "the concession" that they call green mountain because of the color. I don't know the geology of it all but I'm told that the green color means that it is high in copper content. This is a very rich ore deposit.

Trip to Fungurume - The Mine Site

So I had to travel to the mine site for a couple of days. Here's a few pictures. The plane was one of those dual props. I think it holds 12 passengers...not the smallest plane I've been on, but one of the most interesting flights. Here's a couple of shots of the clouds. The flight took about 30 minutes. You can actually drive. The National Highway actually goes right through the "town", but since it's a dirt road and not int he greatest condition, it takes 3 hours.

This is the boarding pass. Sorry that you can't see it very well. I thought it was a very interesting process. You go into this wating-room type area and they right your name on these pre-printed "tickets". Then they cut the tickets apart with sissors and hand you the one with your name on it. It was easy for them to identy me...the only one with an American name. Then the plane comes and you walk out on the tarmack and before you climb those stairs up to the plane, you hand the little slip to another person. I think it would be a lot easier to just tick your name off a list or something.

So here are the accomodations at base camp. They put me up in a "twelve man unit." My suite was eight feet wide and had enough room to walk around the bed and that's about it. I gained a lot of respect for those that live in a room like that for months at a time. At least I had my own bathroom, TV and fridge.

People in the Streets

Most of the people get around by walking. They really need sidewalks here. The poeple are always walking along the side of the roads and sometimes they have troubles making room for the cars. There are a few bicycles too. I really like their colorful clothes. Where can I get a shirt like that?

They carry things on their heads a lot. Yesterday I saw a man carry a bundle of 3-inch PVC pipe of 2o foot lengths on his head.

I see them carry sugar can and charcoal in baskets and bundles all the time. I'm not sure where they get it or where they are going, but they are carrying it all the time.

Families walk together. Look, I think these are teenagers walking with their parents...I don't know if you'd see that in the States. Look at the pretty clothes.

This is a littel market that we drove past. Sorry that I didn't get a good shot...remember I'm taking photos out the windo of our car as we drive by. It reminded me of the camel market in Beer Sheva where the vendors spread out a cloth on the ground to place their wares and their looked like a variety of food and clothes. I really didn't see anything that I would like to buy, but then I didn't get too close.

I'm not sure what she is carrying...maybe sugar cane.

Around Town

It is against the law to take pictures of public buildings in the Congo. Why? I don't know, but I read that if they catch you they can confiscate your camera, throw you in jail and/or beat you up. I figured that if I just descretely snapped a few photos from the car as we drove by, it would be low risk. Besides, I don't know which buildings are public buildings and which are private buildings. I can't tell you what these photos are of, but this is downtown Lumbumbashi, the second largest city in the DRC. The tallest buildings that I've seen here are about ten stories high and there were only two of them. Most of these are three to five stories. There really is not skyline of Lumbumbashi.

Theese photos do not do justice to what the city streets look like. There is a lot of trash in the streets and almost all of the buildings are in poor repair. The Belgians developed the Congo based on slave labor from the late 1800's until 1960, when the native people took over the government. You can tell that this was a nice city. It even had electric trolley cars (We saw a remnant of one). Since 1960 there has not been any improvement in the infrastructure. I'm told it is because the government is so corrupt that they take all of the tax money and don't devolop the cities or the country.

This is one of the major intersections downtown. It isn't really too crowded on Sunday afternoon. There is a roundabout in this intersection and if you look closely you can see the statue of an elephant.

There are a lot of buildings that look like they are partially built, or remnants of once really nice buildings. There is a Sheraton hotel that hasn't been cared for since the 1960's so it is no longer in use and the building is just a shell.

The Bush Club Restaraunt

"Where do I eat?" you ask. I eat at the hotel all of the time, except for the rare times that we go out to restaraunts. We've actually only gone out on the weekends because we have been working late and their isn't much time. They say that there are only about a half dozen restaraunts that have food that is considered safe enough to eat. This is a place called the Bush Club where we ate last weekend. It is located on a large estate the you enter through a gate with a guard. I guess they have to guard the good food. This building had a large thatched roof that looked really cool. The menu is written on the chalkboard in front. The place is probably the nicest place to eat in town. The service was great. They even could speak some English.

The routine was that you go by the meat counter (sorry, I didn't get a shot of the meat counter) and chose what meat you want and tell them how to cook it. Then, they cook your meat and there is a large buffet of salads and vegtables that you can choose from. I ate a crocodile kabob and a filet of antelope. The crocodile was just okay, but the antelope was pretty good. The vegetables and salads were very good. That's a stuffed tomato...I'm not sure what it's stuffed with, but it was good.

This is a shot of the cooks cooking our meat on the grill.

We sat out on the back patio which was very nice. From left to right you see Alain Crosier, Tim Joyner, Dave Prest, and me. David Sinaga is taking the photo. This was shortly after I, in answer to a question, explained the Mormon health code, so Tim said that we should toast with the water glasses.

Copper Grades

These are rocks that I picked up in among the gravel in the parking lot of the hotel. The green color indicates a high grade of copper. In fact, some of these rocks had traces of native copper visible. Only in the DRC would stones like this be used as parking-lot gravel. To give you perspective on how rich the copper ore is here in Africa, the average grade of copper ore harvested in North America last year was .22 percent. The average grade of copper ore harvested in South America last year was .45 percent. The average ore grade of copper ore harvested in the famed Grasberg mine in Indonesia last year was .83 percent. The average grade of this year's ore for this mine in Africa is expected to be 2.6 percent. I heard someone say that the ore they are currently harvesting in about 5 percent. The finished product from this mine is copper cathode. The first shipment of cathode left the country this week. There is a push to get the ore to the warehouse in South Africa, where it will be sold, before the end of the month. It takes about 10 days to truck it from the mine site to port.