GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo — A new lithium mining operation has emerged at Kalambairo, a village near Rubaya in Masisi Territory, North Kivu, adding another strategically important mineral to… The post New Lithium Mine Emerges in M23-Held Rubaya, Adding to Congo’s Mineral Stakes appeared first on KT PRESS .
On social media, local population has been testing out the lithium stones producing live power
GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo — A new lithium mining operation has emerged at Kalambairo, a village near Rubaya in Masisi Territory, North Kivu, adding another strategically important mineral to the resources being extracted from an area controlled by the M23 rebel movement.
Social media content circulating widely in recent days shows hundreds of miners working at a large open pit in the Kalambairo area, while dump trucks transport freshly extracted rock away from the site. Other footage shows miners carrying sacks of ore on motorcycles.
The operation has reportedly begun moving its first loads toward the Rwanda border.
The development is significant because Rubaya is already one of the world’s most important sources of tantalum, a mineral used in electronic components, including capacitors found in smartphones, computers and other high-tech equipment.
Rubaya’s mining complex is estimated to account for about 15% of global coltan supply. Coltan is the principal ore from which tantalum is extracted.
M23 has controlled Rubaya since April 2024, when the armed group seized the strategic mining area during its advance across North Kivu.
United Nations experts have estimated that M23 earns about $800,000 a month from taxing mineral production in the territory under its control. The group has also imposed taxes on minerals leaving the mining area, including coltan and cassiterite.
The emergence of lithium mining potentially broadens the economic importance of the territory.
Lithium is a key material in rechargeable batteries used in electric vehicles, smartphones, laptops and energy-storage systems. Demand for the metal has surged globally as countries invest in electric transport and renewable energy.
The new operation is located in the wider Rubaya mining zone, where extraction is largely carried out by artisanal miners using basic tools. Thousands of people depend on mining in the area, despite the absence of large-scale industrial infrastructure.
Kalambairo has previously featured in reports about the dangers of uncontrolled mining. In January 2026, a major landslide in the Rubaya mining complex killed more than 200 people, highlighting the risks faced by miners working on unstable hillsides.
The latest activity comes as the Democratic Republic of Congo seeks to attract international investment into its mineral sector and strengthen its position in global supply chains for critical minerals.
Congo possesses some of the world’s largest deposits of minerals considered essential to the energy transition. Copper and cobalt dominate the country’s battery-mineral story, while lithium is increasingly attracting attention.
The country’s best-known hard-rock lithium development is the Manono-Kitotolo project in Tanganyika Province, where public geological estimates put the pegmatite resource at about 842 million tonnes grading 1.61% lithium oxide.
The appearance of an active lithium operation in North Kivu therefore adds a new dimension to the mineral economy of a region already central to the global supply of tantalum.
For now, the scale of the Kalambairo lithium operation, the quality of the ore and the size of any underlying resource remain unclear. But the images of a functioning pit, large numbers of miners and trucks moving ore point to a development that could become increasingly important as the mineral trade around Rubaya expands.
The immediate question is where the lithium is going, who is buying it and how it will enter international supply chains.
