Congo: Lobbies query US, EU mineral deals with African states

Zawya

12-05-2025

Lobbies have criticised the recent decision by the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to invite the United States government to a minerals-for-security deal.
President Felix Tshisekedi, battling an M23 rebellion, reached out to the Donald Trump administration with a Ukrainian-style proposal in February.
The proposed agreement would give US companies rights to mine strategic resources, including cobalt and uranium, while providing the Congolese government with military support.
A new report warns that the move could lead to the exploitation of minerals in Congo and could trigger similar contracts on the continent.
A report, 'Transition Minerals Tracker; 2025 Global Analysis' released on May 7, 2025, by the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, a lobby for companies to address human rights concerns, warns that granting foreign nations access to African minerals could create more demand for transition minerals, more conflict, trample on the indigenous peoples' rights and lead to environmental degradation.
Eastern DRC is embroiled in a deadly armed conflict, in which the M23 rebels, alleged to be backed by Rwanda, are taking control of the country's tantalum reserves.
The DRC produces 70 percent of the world's cobalt, yet only 1 percent is refined in the country before being exported.
Francis Kairu, policy adviser at the Tax Justice Network Africa, supported the lobby's push, saying: 'We are daily exporting raw minerals. We are daily entering into government-to-government deals, like what we have seen between the government of DRC and other countries out there. These are agreements for the exploitation of our minerals, where we end up getting little to nothing from the minerals that we export.''Our governments have done very little in terms of ensuring that we can use our mineral wealth in a way that contributes towards economic growth in Africa. This is symptomatic of how we have set up our economic system, because number one, we are not doing a proper analysis of which minerals we are exporting, the volumes we are exporting.'The EU's Critical Raw Materials Act 2024 has also come under scrutiny.
Through the Critical Raw Materials Act 2024, the EU is actively seeking partnerships with African countries, particularly those rich in critical raw materials.
Examples of such partnerships include memoranda signed with the DRC, Zambia, Rwanda, and Namibia.
Despite the agreements, African countries do not place value on how much they export as minerals.
Ghana, for instance, exported $9.58 billion in gold in 2024, yet it only retained 14 percent of the value due to the nature of multinational agreements.
Zimbabwe was ranked as the third-largest producer of chromium in 2023, yet most was exported in raw form.
Currently, much of Africa's mining equipment is imported, with limited local capacity for manufacturing.
This dependency represents lost opportunities for skills transfer, job creation, and industrial development.
Read: US open to minerals partnerships with DR CongoWhile the exact dollar figure is not readily available, it's clear that Africa's mining sector could generate significantly more wealth for the continent if it were more actively managed to ensure fair terms, invest in local value-added industries, and address environmental and social concerns.'When mining projects disregard the principles of free, prior and informed consent enshrined in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, our communities rightly resist,' said Edson Krenak, Executive Committee of the Cultural Survival Lead on Brazil and Securing Indigenous Peoples' rights in the Green Economy.'When these projects harm – sometimes irreparably – our ecosystems, we, as guardians of biodiversity, land, and forests, stand up to protect what we love,' he said.
The Tracker indicates that mineral demand could quadruple by 2040, with clean energy needs accounting for an increasingly dominant share – up to 92 percent for lithium and over 50 percent for copper and nickel.
This pressure is pushing both producing and importing countries to prioritise access over safeguards, accelerating mining approvals and downplaying social, environmental and human rights concerns.
The report recommends countries to commit to rights-respecting investments in the mining sector.
They should also evaluate risks and impacts of investee companies on people and the planet, alongside financial materiality.
Develop policies regarding preferred ownership and investment models that favour shared benefit outcomes for communities and workers.
Platforms could serve as hubs for value addition, particularly for battery minerals, enabling Africa to capture a larger share of the global green energy market.
The decisions made today to harmonise policies, attract investment, and uplift communities will determine whether Africa's mining sector becomes a cornerstone of sustainable global development or a missed opportunity in the race for a just and inclusive energy transition.
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