DRC denies selling off mineral wealth under US deal

DRC

Cape Town –  The Democratic Republic of Congo has not “sold off” its vast mineral wealth to the United States under an agreement granting Washington access to its reserves, the country’s mining minister said on Wednesday, at a time of intensifying global competition among major powers for critical resources.

Signed in December alongside a peace accord aimed at ending the long-running conflict in the eastern DRC, the plan opens access to copper, cobalt, coltan and lithium as Washington seeks to counter Beijing’s dominance in critical mineral supply chains.
“The DRC has not sold off anything at all. The DRC has not sold anything at all,” minister Louis Watum said on the sidelines of the African Mining Indaba conference in Cape Town, rejecting suggestions Kinshasa had ceded ground in talks with Washington.Watum said the agreement – which has yet to halt fighting in the east – creates a framework for talks with US companies on potential projects.

“Some may invest and others not. And when they do, it will be in strict compliance with the mining code,” he said.

US President Donald Trump hailed the accord at the time as a new era of harmony and cooperation that would bring peace and prosperity across the region, but the parties in the conflict have not followed through on their pledges.

The DRC has submitted a list of strategic projects to Washington that will be reviewed in coming weeks by a joint steering committee, Vice Premier Daniel Mukoko Samba said at Davos in January.

Asked about US-China rivalry in the Congolese mining sector, Watum said Kinshasa was focused on domestic priorities, such as education and jobs for its 120 million people.

“We’re not interested in that. We have to play our own game as DRC,” he said.

The DRC’s wealth in natural resources remains largely untapped, with only about 10 percent currently developed, Watum said.

“There is space for everyone,” he added, comparing the country’s current position in global supply chains to Saudi Arabia’s role in oil markets in the 1980s.

The central African nation holds some of the world’s richest deposits of copper, cobalt, coltan and lithium and accounted for 76 percent of global cobalt output in 2024, according to the US Geological Survey.

Demand for the metals is rising across defence, artificial intelligence data centres and the energy transition.

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Source: AFP

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