A year ago, the Chinese mining trade body, known as CCCMC, started setting up a grievance mechanism, intended to resolve complaints made against Chinese-owned mining projects. The companies themselves "lack the ability - both cultural and linguistic" to interact with local communities or civil society organisations, says a spokesperson, Lelia Li.
However, the mechanism still isn't fully operating.
Meanwhile, China's involvement in foreign mining operations seems certain to increase. It's not just a "geopolitical play" to control a key market, says Aditya Lolla, the Asia programme director at Ember, a UK-based environmental think tank, it also makes sense from a business perspective.
"Acquisitions are being made by Chinese companies because, for them, it's all about profits," he says.
As a result, Chinese workers will continue to be sent to mining projects around the world and for them, these projects mostly present a chance to earn good money.
People such as Wang Gang, who has worked for 10 years in Chinese-owned cobalt mines in DR Congo. The 48-year-old lives in company accommodation and eats in the staff canteen, working 10-hour days, seven days a week, with four days' leave per month.
He accepts the separation from his family in Hubei province, because he earns more than he could at home. He also enjoys the clear skies and tall forests of DR Congo.
He communicates with local mine workers in a mixture of French, Swahili, and English, but says: "We rarely chat, except for work-related matters."
Even Ai Qing, who speaks the language of her host country fluently, has little interaction with Argentines outside work. She's started seeing a fellow Chinese worker, and they mostly hang out with other people like themselves - being thousands of miles from home pulls everyone closer.
A highlight for her is visiting the salt flats high up in the Andes where the lithium is mined and life is "chill".
"The altitude sickness always gets me - I can't fall asleep and I can't eat," she says. "But I really do enjoy going up there because things are much simpler, and there are no office politics."
Ai Qing and Wang Gang are pseudonyms
Additional reporting by Emery Makumeno, Byobe Malenga, Lucien Kahozy