Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and China have signed a \u200bdeal to deepen cooperation in the African nation’s mining sector, DRC’s government said, as \u200cglobal powers jockey for influence in the strategically important minerals powerhouse.<\/p>\n
The DRC is the world’s leading producer of cobalt and holds vast reserves of copper, lithium, coltan and other battery metals. Chinese companies led by top cobalt miner \u200bCMOC \u00a0Zijin and Huayou already dominate its mining sector. And Beijing is also DRC’s \u200bbiggest bilateral creditor.<\/p>\n
However, the United States (US) and other countries seeking supplies of the \u2060minerals needed for electric vehicle manufacturing and the energy transition are also courting Kinshasa.<\/p>\n
DRC’s exports to China are already due to benefit from duty-free access to China \u200bfrom May 1 under an initiative covering 53 African countries.<\/p>\n
The new agreement sets out cooperation on geological data sharing, investment protection and the promotion of local processing of raw materials in DRC, according to the DRC government statement \u200bpublished late on Thursday.<\/p>\n
It also includes a monitoring mechanism to ensure projects comply with Congolese law \u200band are implemented in a stable and transparent investment environment.
\nA flagship iron ore project in northeastern DRC, known \u200cas MIFOR, \u2060will receive priority support from China, the statement said.<\/p>\n
“The US will certainly take notice,” Joshua Walker of NYU’s DRC Research Group said of the new agreement. “It is clearly a riposte to Washington.”<\/p>\n
The Trump administration signed a strategic partnership with DRC in \u200bDecember to boost Western investment, redirect \u200bits mineral supplies \u2060and reduce China’s dominance in critical minerals mining and processing.<\/p>\n
The DRC has since shared a list of priority assets with the US, though its government has said it \u200bwould seek other partners if the deal with Washington fails to deliver concrete \u200bprojects.<\/p>\n
Walker noted \u2060that Congo’s deal with the US\u00a0is broader and binding, trading security backing in eastern Congo, where Kinshasa has fought a years-long conflict with Rwandan-backed rebels, for mining access.<\/p>\n
–Reuters–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":13586,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-30140","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"The DRC is the world's leading producer of cobal","published_date":"","news_description":"The DRC is the world's leading producer of cobal","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/30140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/30140\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30141,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/30140\/revisions\/30141"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=30140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}