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Congo Uses Cobalt Export Limits to Force Processing Deals With Chinese Miners

The Democratic Republic of Congo appears determined to leverage its negotiating power with Chinese and other mining companies to secure major concessions on local cobalt processing. That was the signal sent by Congolese Mines Minister Louis Watum, who said — according ...

Glencore Weighs Sale of One of DRC’s Largest Cobalt Mines, Reviving U.S.–China Rivalry Over Critical Minerals

The Swiss mining giant Glencore is reportedly talking with prospective buyers for its 75% stake in the Kamoto Copper Company (KCC) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, one of the company's flagship assets that is also one of the world's largest producers of cobalt. ...

Lobito Corridor Not Intended to Counter China in Africa, Says New CEO

The Lobito Atlantic Railway (LAR) corridor is purely a commercial venture with “zero geopolitical considerations," said the new CEO, Nicholas Fournier, in an interview with the South China Morning Post newspaper. Fournier said the upgrade of the massive 1,800km-long railway that ends ...

U.S. Sanctions Hong Kong Firms Over Illegal Mining in the DR Congo

The U.S. Treasury Department on Tuesday imposed penalties on a pair of Hong Kong-based companies for "destabilizing activities in the DRC" that involved the purchase of illegally sourced minerals. The companies were allegedly operating in an area near the far eastern city ...

Connecting the Dots: DRC Mineral Geopolitics

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is reportedly lobbying the U.S. for greater backing against incursions by the Rwandan-backed M23 militia in return for access to critical minerals. Recent press reports cited a classified letter by Aaron Poynton, an executive appointed by the DRC government to boost ...

Analysis from Cobus van Staden

Weighing the Value of “Values”

I was in Berlin this week for a conference on the EU’s relationship with Africa in the context of the continent’s growing ties with external actors, many of whom Europe finds acutely worrying.
The conference eerily landed on the second anniversary of the October 7 attack in Israel. I was in Berlin two years ago as well. In the weeks after the attack, one could see how Western powers’ ...

Angola’s Big Bet on Biden Now Risks Backfiring

Pity poor Angola. President João Lourenço placed a multimillion-dollar bet on hiring expensive Washington, D.C. lobbying firms to put his southern African country on the U.S. agenda. Whatever they did worked because, over the past several years, Angola seemingly became the ...

China’s Role in the DR Congo Cobalt Supply Chain: Who’s Who?

This report serves as a companion piece to CGSP’s Interactive Cobalt Tracker. While the map provides detailed, up-to-date data on the cobalt industry in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, this report offers the broader context needed to understand that data.

Everything You Need To Know About FOCAC 2024

With the ninth Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) now concluded, key themes and outcomes from the meeting have come into focus. While China and Africa remain aligned on many critical issues, the balance between their converging and diverging interests shaped the results of FOCAC 2024 in ...

BYD is Launching Its Next Gen Blade EV Battery and That’s Really Bad News for Both DR Congo, Indonesia

Chinese electric vehicle giant BYD announced the launch date for its next generation Blade EV battery that will be released in August with 27% more energy density than the current power pack. The new battery will also be sufficient for most cars to ...

Chinese Peacekeepers Pulling out of DR Congo

Chinese peacekeepers with the UN stabilization mission in eastern DR Congo attended a departure ceremony on Tuesday as the force withdrew from the war-torn region. The 15,000 MONUSCO troops deployed in the vast central African country started to leave in February ...

Second Chinese National Killed in the DR Congo This Week

A Chinese national was killed and another injured when their gold mining camp in northwestern Ituri province came under attack on Monday by armed bandits. Local police said the assailants made off with "a little money and a few grams of ...

With Prices Low, China Moves Quickly to Secure Supplies of Critical Metals

The year-long plunge in the prices of critical materials used to manufacture electric vehicle batteries, namely nickel, cobalt, and lithium, is destroying the bottom lines of Western mining companies. Mining companies in Australia, Canada, and several European countries are laying off ...
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