Here at AlertNet, we're not very big on good news. In fact, some might say it's positively discouraged in favour of disasters, failed peace talks, massacred aid staff and the occasional crop failure.

Democratic Republic of Congo hasn't historically been very big on good news either. Its civil war left 3.9 million dead from violence, hunger and disease, making it the bloodiest conflict since the Korean War - even if it barely registered in terms of news coverage in the outside world.

Even with the war over, a 2006 report estimated that 1,200 people were dying every day spread across a country the size of Western Europe. The deployment of a 17,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping force has been held up as a success story. But the mission has been unable to do anything other than observe as fighting between the government and renegade general Laurent Nkunda has displaced more than 300,000 people in recent months.

Yet south of where the new fighting rages, economic activity is flourishing again, according to this Reuters feature.

In Congo's former top copper town Kolwezi, vehicles are back on the streets - along with brightly uniformed traffic marshals - while hundreds of jobs have been created. Women no longer fear the mass rapes that have become alarmingly commonplace in Congo in recent years.

The reason is simple. Record copper prices and a largely peaceful election - the aftermath of which saw only limited fighting in the capital, a success in Congolese terms - have revitalised a shattered mining industry.

For decades, many of Congo's mines have been largely abandoned as small-scale informal miners scratch a meagre profit from lethally dangerous work. Transport links have almost ceased to exist, making export relatively difficult. Many mines have been under the control of warlords.

Now that's changing, with the world's biggest mining companies speaking once again of Congo as an opportunity - though many are still cautious.

"If we start doing things too early, we may get into difficulties," Mark Moody-Stuart, chairman of mining giant Anglo American, told me in a Reuters interview this month.

"Security has improved somewhat. I think there is genuine enthusiasm to make things more transparent and tackle corruption. The question is when is it the right point to come in investing, and I believe it is coming to that point."

There are plenty of stories of unacceptable behaviour by Western mineral companies exploiting workforces, fuelling conflict and leaving few benefits behind.

But many say they've learned lessons from the past, and point out that stability and growth in states like Congo are in their interest. They want to build roads to bring in equipment, and they know economic activity will follow.

While oil reserves like those of nearby Angola and Nigeria are usually worked by predominantly expatriate workers, mining is much more labour-intensive and so the wealth it generates is more likely to trickle down to the local population. There's always a risk that the mining companies would withdraw almost overnight if commodity prices fall - but with China buying up everything in sight, few expect that.

There will be downsides. Mining may bring money, roads and trade - but if the experience of southern Africa is any example, it will also bring HIV, whose spread in Congo has been limited by poor transport infrastructure. And past commodity booms have fuelled corruption, bringing minimal benefits to impoverished communities.

Nonetheless, after years of decline, for some Congolese there seems to be at least a glimmer of hope.

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