Global: World Bank mines rich seam of controversy in extractives policy

Since 2001, the Bank has led an expansive programme to increase transparency and stimulate economic growth in the DRC’s mining sector. However, opaque sales of mining assets by state-owned mining companies led the Bank to suspend all new programmes in the DRC in late 2010. The Bank resumed lending in June last year when it judged the government to be in compliance. However, only a month later it came to light that state-owned mining companies had again been secretly selling stakes in mining operations, in one case at a sixteenth of their market price.