By Joe Bavier

KINSHASA, March 31 (Reuters) - Police fired teargas at hundreds of angry artisanal miners on Monday near one of Congo's biggest Copper Belt mining towns, as tensions rose over plans to evict thousands of illegal diggers from private concessions.

Miners burned tyres in protests that began midmorning outside the town of Kolwezi, home to some of the world's richest copper and cobalt deposits, as a deadline passed for illegal diggers to vacate a nearby Anvil Mining <AVM.TO> concession.

Police intervened and dispersed the crowds without major incident. However, violent clashes later erupted in the town of Luilu, 15 km (10 miles) west of Kolwezi.

"(The protesters) had Molotov cocktails, stones, really dangerous objects ... There were around 700. We're still making arrests," Colonel Zacharie Muyumba, head of the police in Kolwezi, said.

The Luilu protests were not thought to be directly related to the Anvil Mining evictions, and the company said operations at its Kulu mine were not affected by the day's violence.

But clashes are becoming increasingly frequent as industrial mining operations move into mineral-rich Katanga, threatening the livelihoods of an estimated 150,000 artisanal miners.

Hundreds of informal diggers took to the streets after police shot and killed a child during an eviction near Likasi, another major mining town southeast of Kolwezi, this month.

International mining firms including Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold <FCX.N> and Katanga Mining Limited <KAT.TO> hold major concessions near Kolwezi.

During Monday's protests, miners invaded a concession where Katanga Mining operates an ore processing plant and raided a warehouse.

"They were targeting a warehouse on a part of the concession that isn't ours," said Katanga Mining spokesman David Orford.

"We've removed our people from the Luilu site as a precaution, but we expect they will be back at work tomorrow ... We only lost part of a day's production," he told Reuters.

Interest in Congo's once mighty mining sector has boomed since President Joseph Kabila's election in 2006, polls meant to draw a line under decades of mismanagement and conflict.

The increased investment means the security forces face the sensitive task of relocating illegal miners, many of whom began digging on abandoned concessions as state miner Gecamines disintegrated during the years of instability. (For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: http://africa.reuters.com/ ) (Editing by Nick Tattersall and Jim Marshall)

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