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The article analyses the review of mining contracts and concessions in the Democratic Republic of Congo, signed by illegitimate governments during the country's period of political instability and civil war. The article demonstrates that the discourse and activities around this revisitation were more style than substance, and reveals little increase in awareness by political decision-makers in the DRC. In the international arena, in spite of the new forms of regulation, the notion of 'free mining' dominates and continues to dictate asymmetrical power relations within the DRC's mining sector. As a result, certain actors continue to dominate negotiations within mining's complex industrial structure, to the detriment of other key actors, including the Congolese state, and especially the population of the DRC who bear the burden of mining's heavy economic and environmental impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]