However, de facto control of the mine was kept by a former executive of GfE, Karl Heinz Albers, who maintained friendly relations with the rebel Rally for Congolese Democracy (RCD) faction.

[7] Albers was accused by the UN panel of experts of being a front for financing RCD and its splinter group successor Rally for Congolese Democracy–Goma, with the mine protected by rebel soldiers.

[8] During the Second Congo War, Lueshe was the only operating industrial mine in the RCD's territory, producing 270 tons of semi processed niobium a month to sell to GfE.

[12] In December 2005, Laurent Nkunda's soldiers were pushed out of the Lueshe mine by ex-Mai Mai Colonel She Kasikila and his FARDC 5th brigade, who went about dismantling RCD control in the area, for the first time since 1998.

[21] Bellingcat has raised questions about possible connections between wrangling over Lueshe and the presence of Georgian nationals who were aboard a FARDC Mil Mi-24 helicopter which it crashed near Rutshuru in January 2017.

[23] In December 2022, the several DRC government officials claimed the recent massacre of civilians at Kishishe was carried out by the March 23 Movement and motivated by an attempt to secure access to pyrochlore at the Somikivu mine.