My aunt wrote that, among the photos, she liked especially the beautiful rocks, so I'm posting more rock photos!  And yes, the title could be punctuated differently:  DRC Responsible Mining Trade Study Tour Rocks!  It did, thanks to our Mission in Kinshasa, our partners in the field, and the overall caliber of participants.  You Rock! 

from the Cassiterite mines in South Kivu province

Quartz with cassiterite (tin)

Cassiterite as it arrives at the processor (comptoir)

Cassiterite after crushing and sorting by weight to weed out the junk.

The 80% solution - could be that high before being shipped to Malaysia for processing into TIN.

Malachite, occurring with copper at TFM

The black stuff is...(I'll add later), from a presentation at Tenke-Fungurume Mine (TFM) in Katanga Province.

Malachite and copper

A core from a drill straight down at TFM

Now you can see the "half-pipe" from the drill down (TFM)

Detail from previous

Back of the half-pipe.

It reminded me of a birch log.

A look at the half-pipe shared by a geologist at TFM

This malachite pyramid has stood in the Grand Karavia Hotel in Lubumbashi for 30 years, at least!