The U.S. has made progress in its push to prise Congo’s strategic minerals from China’s orbit, but conflict, contested licences and compliance demands are still slowing Washington’s advance \u200binto a region its rival\u00a0dominates, diplomats and industry officials said.<\/p>\n
Democratic Republic of Congo, which hosts the world’s largest\u00a0cobalt supply and rich copper and lithium reserves, is central to the \u200cU.S. push to cut the West’s reliance on China for rare minerals.<\/p>\n
After the U.S. and Congo signed a\u00a0minerals pact\u00a0in December, Kinshasa last month handed Washington a\u00a044-project shortlist\u00a0spanning copper, cobalt, lithium, tin, gold and hydrocarbons, Reuters reported.<\/p>\n
The U.S.\u2013Congo partnership is meant to unlock investment, the U.S. State Department said, and support implementation of a peace deal Washington brokered between Congo and Rwanda, which Kinshasa has accused of supporting M23 rebels fighting Congolese troops in its east.<\/p>\n
But several of the shortlisted assets sit in \u200bpolitically fraught zones or carry permitting disputes, making quick, reliable mining deals unlikely, said the sources, who include Congolese government and mining officials. They asked not to be named because the discussions \u200bare sensitive.<\/p>\n
CONGO SLOWING DEALS, SOURCE SAYS<\/strong><\/p>\n One U.S. diplomat said Kinshasa is deliberately slowing new deals to push Washington to increase pressure on M23 before any further steps \u2060are taken. Reuters could not independently verify the claim.<\/p>\n The Congolese government did not immediately respond to requests for comment. On background, a senior government official described the allegations as “speculation”.<\/p>\n “The agreement has its own rhythm: a \u200bperiod for receiving offers, a period for negotiation,” the official said. Rwanda, which denies backing M23, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n The U.S. State Department told Reuters the U.S. remains “deeply concerned” by violence in \u200beastern Congo and is pushing regional partners to reinforce the ceasefire, urging Rwanda to\u00a0end M23 support\u00a0and withdraw in line with December’s peace deal.<\/p>\n The department said Washington hopes to see swift progress on key deals, including a proposal for\u00a0Glencore\u00a0to sell copper and cobalt assets to the U.S.-backed Orion consortium, U.S.-based\u00a0Virtus Minerals\u2019\u00a0bid for Congo-focused Chemaf, and the extension of the\u00a0Lobito Corridor\u00a0railway line.<\/p>\n Kinshasa’s inclusion on the shortlist of the\u00a0Rubaya\u00a0mine, which supplies about 15% of global coltan and sits under M23\/AFC control, \u200bsignals Congo wants stronger U.S. action on M23, said Joshua Walker of NYU’s Congo Research Group.<\/p>\n Investment is unlikely while the group holds territory, he said.<\/p>\n U.S. influence on security has already been seen at some mines. \u200bAlphamin Resources\u00a0restarted its\u00a0Bisie tin mine\u00a0only after\u00a0U.S. diplomatic pressure helped ease fighting in territory around the site, though it warns that renewed clashes could threaten access and operations.<\/p>\n PERMITTING GRIDLOCK<\/strong><\/p>\n Congo’s permitting gridlock is a structural brake on new U.S. investment, \u200csaid Michael \u2060Bahati, chief analyst at advisory firm Ascendance Strategies, but additionally some assets on Kinshasa’s list are mired in disputes, incomplete rights and ownership records, and slow transparency reporting.<\/p>\n At Manono, a global-class lithium resource, U.S.-backed KoBold is currently trying to settle a dispute with Australia\u2019s AVZ, while China\u2019s Zijin\u00a0in the same area is preparing\u00a0shipments in June.<\/p>\n High-grade copper-cobalt assets, including the\u00a0Chemaf\u00a0and Gecamines’ concessions, face political disputes and permitting histories that deter Western lenders. Chemaf’s sale to U.S.-backed Virtus has slowed after the owners signaled that the roughly $30 million bid does not cover the firm’s heavy debts.<\/p>\n Even for so-called “easy wins” \u2014 tailings reprocessing, for instance, or proposed cobalt refineries \u2014 Kinshasa has signaled \u200bthat success hinges on governance reforms and security guarantees \u200bthat only Washington can help deliver.<\/p>\n The bottlenecks expose \u2060a gap between U.S. strategic intent and its ability to mobilise capital at speed, said Geraud-Christian Neema, an analyst of the geopolitics of natural resources in Africa.<\/p>\n Washington\u2019s focus remains on “ready-to-produce” assets. A longer-term shift would require U.S. companies willing to shoulder Congo-level risk and wait years for returns, a commitment “not many U.S. firms are \u200bprepared to make”, he said.<\/p>\n WESTERN PROCEDURE VS CHINESE PACE<\/strong><\/p>\n Congolese officials acknowledge they want American players to move faster, but say they cannot circumvent compliance obligations.<\/p>\n While \u200bU.S. and other Western firms \u2060are often bound by obligations such as clearing anti-bribery checks, proving clean title chains, and documenting community impact risks, Chinese companies are not subject to the same regimes.<\/p>\n At Manono, Zijin\u2019s head-start in building out roads, power and port links is already shaping the project. KoBold\u2019s Congo head said the company will look to share that infrastructure once its ownership disputes are resolved, a pace that reflects the compliance burden U.S.-backed firms face.<\/p>\n The contrast is clear for Congo’s \u2060mining sector – Chinese \u200boperators can absorb uncertainty that Western firms cannot, allowing Beijing-linked companies to advance projects while U.S. companies remain stuck in due-diligence \u200bloops.<\/p>\n For now, Kinshasa has succeeded in pulling Washington deeper into its critical-minerals orbit, betting U.S. attention will translate into security and political dividends, NYU’s Walker said.<\/p>\n “What that engagement will ultimately look like, however, remains uncertain.”<\/p>\n But with Chinese firms already controlling over 70% of Congo’s \u200bcopper-cobalt and other rare mineral assets, nothing yet suggests Washington can significantly loosen Beijing\u2019s grip.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The U.S. has made progress in its push to prise Congo’s strategic minerals from China’s orbit, but conflict, contested licences and compliance demands are still slowing Washington’s advance \u200binto a region its rival\u00a0dominates, diplomats and industry officials said. Democratic Republic of Congo, which hosts the world’s largest\u00a0cobalt supply and rich copper and lithium reserves, is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":15558,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":15,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"1"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","source_name":"Reuters","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,2362,3028,1129],"tags":[3016],"class_list":["post-20062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-east-africa","category-featured","category-mining","category-security","tag-democratic-republic-of-congo-drc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20062"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20062\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20063,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20062\/revisions\/20063"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}