JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) -Alphamin Resources said it restarted tin production at its Bisie mine in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday after rebels withdrew from a nearby town of Walikale.
The miner said in a statement it is processing stockpiled tin ore and activities at its underground mine are planned to resume later this month as more of its employees return to work.
Alphamin in March temporarily halted operations at Bisie, which produces about 6% of global tin supplies a year, as a rebel group that is backed by Congo’s eastern neighbour Rwanda advanced in the adjacent town of Walikale.
The M23 rebel group had rapidly made gains toward Walikale after seizing Goma and Bukavu earlier in the year, key cities in Congo’s North and South Kivu provinces.
The rebels withdrew from the town early this month after agreeing to enter into talks with the government in a peace deal brokered with the help of the U.S.
government.
The Toronto-listed company also said that it has resumed exports of the metal, used to make semi-conductors.
Alphamin lowered its output forecast for tin this year to 17,500 tons from an earlier planned 20,000 tons citing the disruption.
Alphamin produced about 17,000 tons of the metal last year.
Production in the three months to March dropped 18% to about 4,300 tons compared to about 5,200 tons in the preceding quarter, Alphamin said.
(Reporting by Felix Njini in Johannesburg.
Editing by Jane Merriman and Toby Chopra)
