{"id":44816,"date":"2026-09-07T10:38:26","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T08:38:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=44816"},"modified":"2026-09-07T10:38:26","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T08:38:26","slug":"us-company-kobold-metals-secures-drc-exploration-permits","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/us-company-kobold-metals-secures-drc-exploration-permits\/","title":{"rendered":"US company KoBold Metals secures DRC exploration permits"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>United States (US) mineral company KoBold Metals has secured seven exploration permits in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to search for lithium, tin,\u00a0coltan\u00a0and rare earths.<\/div>\n<div>\nLast year, the US signed a deal with the\u00a0DRC\u00a0allowing American firms access to the country&#8217;s minerals in exchange for supporting efforts to restore peace between the\u00a0DRC\u00a0and Rwanda.<\/p>\n<p>The exploration permits secured by California based mineral company KoBold Metals will allow it to mine rare earth minerals like lithium and coltan in the DRC.<\/p>\n<p>Four of the seven mining sites are in Manono territory and the other three are in Haut Lomami in southeastern DRC.<\/p>\n<p>KoBold Metals is backed by several major investors, including billionaires Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos.<\/p>\n<p>The company&#8217;s exploration permits cover minerals like coltan and lithium.<\/p>\n<p>These are found in limited quantities in the US and something that the world is heavily reliant on China for. But the DRC has vast untapped reserves of these minerals.<\/p>\n<p>They are used in making batteries, electronics and other advanced technologies critical to the global energy transition.<\/p>\n<p>KoBold acquired the permits nine months after the United States and the DRC signed an economic agreement granting the US greater access to the DRC&#8217;s critical minerals, as part of broader efforts to resolve the conflict between the DRC and Rwanda.<\/p>\n<p>However, the conflict continues despite a peace agreement signed last year in Washington, DC, by the Presidents of the DRC,\u00a0F\u00e9lix Tshisekedi and Rwanda, Paul Kagame .<\/p>\n<p>President Donald Trump administration has been seeking to establish a greater presence in the DRC&#8217;s mining sector, which Chinese companies have dominated.<\/p>\n<p>The east of the DRC is rich in minerals, but decades of conflict and corruption have left many communities there living in poverty.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;SABC\/ Chris Ocamringa&#8211;<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":13986,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-44816","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"US mineral company KoBold Metals has secured seven exploration permits","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/44816","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\/44816\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44817,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/44816\/revisions\/44817"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=44816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}