The government will Thursday turn over to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) smuggled minerals it seized in the western corridors of Rusizi and Rubavu.

The minerals were seized in the last five months.

82,000kgs included cassitarite, wolframite, tungsten and tantalum.

"On Thursday,the Minister of Natural Resources will meet with his Congolese counterpart and officially hand over the minerals,” Michael Biryabarema, the General Director of Mines and Geology in the Ministry of Natural Resources, said in an interview.

According to Biryabarema, the Revenue Protection Department’s efforts to halt smuggling across borders was simplified by the implementation of mineral tagging scheme, which made it easy to identify and detain untagged minerals as smugglers slip into the country.

"We are still evaluating the captured minerals so that we can be sure of their origin and send all of them back. So far, we have proved that over 82,000kgs are Congolese minerals, but the number could increase,” he observed.

"This action, together with implementation of projects like the tagging scheme, will improve Rwanda’s mineral sector by making it more transparent. Cooperation with our neighbours in this initiative is a credible initiative as well.”

In January this year, Rwanda set up a mineral tagging and sealing scheme internationally recognised as the iTSCi project, which aims to curb illegal trading of minerals, particularly from conflict areas in the DRC.

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