A BRIDGE at a copper and cobalt mine in a south-eastern province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) collapsed due to overcrowding, killing at least 32 people, a regional government official said on Sunday.

The bridge at the Kalando mine in Mulondo in Lualaba province fell on Saturday, Roy Kaumba Mayonde, the province’s interior minister, said.

“Despite the strict prohibition on accessing the site due to heavy rainfall and the risk of landslides, illegal diggers forced their way into the quarry,” Mr Mayonde said.

A report by the DRC’s Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining Support and Guidance Service government agency on Sunday said gunfire from soldiers at the site sparked panic among the miners who rushed to the bridge, resulting in the fall that left them “piled on top of each other causing the deaths and injuries.”

The presence of soldiers at the mine has long been at the centre of a dispute between wildcat miners, a co-operative meant to organise operations and the site’s legal operators, the report added.

The DRC is the world’s largest producer of cobalt, a mineral used to make lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles and other products, with Chinese companies controlling 80 per cent of the production in the central African country.