In the Tusengosengo mine, Walikale territory, North Kivu Province, around 200 artisanal miners work under the umbrella of the Cooperative Minière des Creuseurs Volontaires pour le Développement Endogène (COMICVDE), established to organise and represent miners operating in the area. Once extracted, minerals are brought to the cooperative-managed depot, where they are stored and recorded until they are purchased by négociants (local traders).
To strengthen transparency and shared responsibility in the management of these minerals while being stored, COMICVDE, inspired by ITSCI’s approach towards joint tag management mechanism, introduced a similar system for its depot. Since January 2026, the depot has been secured with three padlocks, with keys held separately by the chef de site (site manager), chef de chantier (site supervisor) and chef de dépôt (depot manager). Access therefore requires the participation of all three parties, creating a system of shared oversight for minerals entering and leaving the depot.
By collectively recording and managing mineral production, the system provides greater visibility of mineral production and trade and reduces the risk of theft of minerals. It also reinforces the cooperative’s role in ensuring that a share of the value generated by artisanal mining contributes to improvements at the site and to the development of the communities that depend on it.
COMICVDE cooperative depot in Tusengosengo, June 2026. Inspired by ITSCI’s joint tag management system, the depot is secured with three padlocks, each controlled by a different stakeholder to support transparency and shared oversight of mineral stocks.
ITSCI joint tag management mechanism
The ITSCI Programme distributes tags to state services in charge of tagging depending on the level of activity and expected mineral production at each mine site. When distributed, those tags are stored in lockboxes secured with multiple padlocks. Each key is held by a different stakeholder, usually SAEMAPE (Service for Assistance and Supervision of Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining organisation), Mine Division, and the mine’s cooperative or mine title holder, preventing that no single actor can access the tags alone and promoting accountability and collaboration in traceability processes.
“The cooperative introduced this procedure after seeing how the joint management of tags helped strengthen transparency and trust between stakeholders in the mining sector,” explained an ITSCI Field Officer.
By applying the principle of joint control to depot management, COMICVDE sought to further reinforce transparency and confidence among stakeholders involved in mineral production and trade.
The success of the approach has been shared within mining communities and is being adopted in other mine sites monitored by ITSCI, including Bongobongo, Mutiku and Kabunga, while other cooperatives have expressed interest in replicating the model.
For COMICVDE President David Bamwisho, the initiative demonstrates how practical solutions inspired by responsible sourcing systems can support both transparency and local development.
“We adopted the three-lock depot system because it was inspired by the tag management process using lockboxes. In the past, cases were reported where minerals could be moved without the cooperative’s knowledge. Today, all stakeholders are involved in the process, and the system is working. The cooperative is now better able to have an overview of production and the revenues generated, and contributes to community development projects and other initiatives supporting artisanal mining.”
The Tusengosengo mine has been monitored by ITSCI since 2016. Across North Kivu, ITSCI currently monitors 260 mines, supporting over 2,700 artisanal miners. This initiative illustrates how practical systems introduced through ITSCI can inspire locally driven solutions that address operational needs, reinforce stakeholder confidence and support continuous improvements in mineral supply chain management at the community level.