By Joe Bavier

KINSHASA, March 6 (Reuters) - Hundreds of artisanal miners clashed with police in one of Congo's biggest Copper Belt mining towns on Thursday after police shot one of them dead during an eviction from a state mining concession, residents said.

The clashes began after police started clearing artisanal miners off a concession near Likasi belonging to state mining company Gecamines, said Dikanga Kazadi, interior minister in the provincial government of Congo's copper-rich Katanga province. "There were artisanal miners on a Gecamines site. This morning Gecamines decided to expel them by force," he said.

"A police officer unfortunately shot at one of the miners. It was an accident, though the officer is under arrest," he told Reuters.

Kazadi said the miner had been killed, but could not confirm reports cited by residents that the victim was a 10-year-old boy. Child labour is widespread in the vast country's large artisanal, or informal, mining sector.

Residents said police were forced to abandon the eviction from the Kamatanda mine, 3 km (2 miles) from Likasi, in order to secure the mayor's office in the centre of town.

"The crowd got very angry and started throwing stones and shots were fired ... We did see youths throwing stones at a line of police in front of the mayor's office," said one expatriate resident, John Skinner. "The situation is now pretty calm."

Likasi is one of the three biggest mining centres on the Congolese side of the Copper Belt, which straddles the southern border with Zambia for several hundred kilometres (miles).

Artisanal miners in the town dig for heterogenite, an ore containing both copper and cobalt, which they sell on to mainly foreign independent minerals dealers who include a fast-growing number of Chinese metals traders.

An estimated 150,000 people work in Katanga's informal mining sector, often working in parlous conditions in mines lacking reinforced galleries or proper ventilation. Fatal accidents are common.

Gecamines, which is being restructured and is overhauling its operations after decades of mismanagement and systematic looting under late dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, often licenses artisanal miners to work on inactive concessions.

It was not clear whether the miners evicted on Thursday had permits to work the Kamatanda site. Gecamines officials in Katanga and in the capital Kinshasa could not be reached for immediate comment. (For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: http://africa.reuters.com) (Writing by Alistair Thomson; editing by Tim Pearce)

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