An NGO that has documented impacts of the mine concluded that spills have threatened community members' right to food.

[1] In April 2022, president Félix Tshisekedi's administration announced plans to renegotiate rights and royalties to the mine as it was poised to reopen.

In 2009, the UN Development Programme reported a 70% poverty rate in the former Katanga province (where Mutanda mine is located), and 80% of people lacked drinking water or electricity.

[10][2] Non-government organisations and media reports have found that artisanal mining in the DRC is plagued with safety and health problems, human rights violations, and child labor.

[11] Facilities include a dense media separation concentrator and a hydrometallurgical plant for crushing, screening, milling, pre-leaching, leaching, clarification and SX/EW.

[9] Bread for all and Catholic Lenten Fund, an NGO that has written several reports documenting environmental justice impacts of mining in the province, concluded that frequent chemical spills near Mutanda mine and the Kamoto Copper Company facilities have negatively impacted community members' right to food.

These farmers' harvests were ruined, including cassava, maize, rice, bean, pineapple and banana crops.

Article 281 of the Mining Code requires Glencore to compensate for “any modification rendering the land unfit for cultivation”.

[22][2] In September 2011 the International Monetary Fund asked state-owned mining companies Sodimico and Gécamines for explanations of these secret sales of assets below market value.

[23][22] Glencore also indirectly owns 37.5% of Kansuki, a copper and cobalt project bordering Mutanda covering 185 square kilometres (71 sq mi).

This brought their effective stake in Mutanda to about 60%, and left a remaining 25.5% portion of Samref Overseas still held by High Grade Minerals, which Glencore had set up a deal to acquire in December 2013 for $430 million.

[26] In 2018, a Congolese-American businessman Charles Brown filed a lawsuit in Congolese court, claiming that he sold a 19.12% stake in Mutanda to Groupe Bazano under threat of violence on May 9, 2012.

[27] In May 2022, Glencore admitted to bribing government officials in several African countries including the DRC to secure "improper business advantages".

In December, 2022 the company agreed to pay $180 million to the DRC to settle "all present and future claims arising from any alleged acts of corruption" during the period from 2007 to 2018.