FRONTIER MINE, DRC (Reuters):

Like many Congolese, Godel Mulamba made a living on the illegal trade in copper ore until the Government banned the export of raw copper in March of this year.

Analysts say decades of mismanagement under former ruler Mobutu Sese Seko and a 1998-2003 war, which killed an estimated four million people, left Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in ruins.

Young people like Mulamba engaged in the illegal trade in minerals, mainly as middlemen, to earn a living until Katanga's Governor Moise Katumbi suspended shipments to Zambia of raw cobalt and copper in March, saying the ores should be processed locally.

Temporary freeze

The Ministry of Mines temporarily froze exports from North Kivu in April while new permits were issued to exporters.

The new order left many young people without a form of livelihood, Mulamba said, but that is being changed thanks to new mines which are offering them employment.

Mulamba, 29, a qualified metallurgical engineer from a university in Lubumbashi, was one of the Congolese who took advantage of a disorganised mining sector to earn some dollars by selling copper ore to 'unlicensed' dealers.

But he now has formal employment thanks to the Frontier Mine Plc, a unit of Canada's First Quantum Minerals, which has offered him a permanent job.

Tremendous benefits

"We have employed a lot of young people here and this is one of the tremendous benefits created for the local community," Frontier Mine General Manager Sean Whittome said.

Mulamba says his US$250 per month salary is modest, but he is happy with the employment security that comes with his job at the mine which has a 20-year lifespan.

The Frontier Mine, on the border with Zambia, about 335 km north of Lusaka, has employed a number of local people from Lubumbashi, the DRC's second largest city and Sakania, a small town of 20,000 people bordering the southern African country.