Research
The DRC holds 70-80% of global cobalt supply and mining constitutes 46% of its GDP, yet only ~3% of cobalt sales value historically accrued to Congolese society — the structural condition that makes the December 2025 U.S.-DRC Strategic Partnership Agreement both genuinely consequential and deeply contested. Proponents frame the SPA as supply-chain diversification with development co-benefits; critics argue its legal architecture erodes Congolese sovereignty through joint governance mechanisms, preferential U.S. access rights, and mandated mining-law reforms, while bypassing parliamentary approval entirely. The most important unresolved tension is empirical rather than ideological: comparators like Indonesia's nickel export ban and Zambia's transparency-without-enforcement experience suggest the deal's developmental value hinges entirely on whether the DRC can exercise sovereign industrial policy within it — and no post-implementation data yet exists to test that question.
The DRC's proposal potentially could help the US diversify its sources of minerals. Supporting the DRC's efforts to leverage its mineral wealth ...
... cobalt, manganese, gold and lithium. Subscribe to us on YouTube: http://ow.ly/Zvqj30aIsgY Follow us on: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com ...
Facilitate greater investment by U.S. persons and aligned persons in order to diversify the Democratic Republic of the Congo's mining sector, ...
The DRC accuses the M23 and Rwanda of stealing its natural resources ... Go to channel Center for Strategic & International Studies · Why is ...
The announcement of a peace and critical minerals deal between the United States and the DRC marks a pivotal moment—not just for bilateral ...
DRC holds some of the world's largest reserves of cobalt (about 50 ... cobalt, lithium, rare‑earth elements, gold and industrial minerals.
For instance, post colonial legacy plays a large role in the resource curse and is a factor that still exists in the Sub-Saharan today (Austin, ...
The Democratic Republic of Congo's (DRC) mining sector scores a poor 33 of 100 for overall resource governance, ranking 75th among 89 assessments in the 2017 ...
China has gained a dominant position in Africa's critical minerals sector through long-term investments in mining and refining capacity.
The DRC produces 80 percent of the world's cobalt—Chinese state-owned enterprises and policy banks control 80 percent of the total output ...
This article will briefly outline the idea of the resource curse. It will then delve into the extractive sectors set up by European colonial powers across five ...
This study examines the mining sector's potential to contribute to economic growth with governance in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
China and the U.S. are engaging Africa's critical mineral sector in a competitive manner, both working to secure the resources needed to further ...
... Rwanda alleges a militia based in Congo and linked to the 1994 genocide still poses a threat to its security. The area is rich in minerals ...
This paper reviews the landscape of critical minerals in Africa, the unique opportunities the region offers to U.S. investors, ...
The DRC is one of the world's most mineral-rich countries. There is now a unique opportunity for the United States to build minerals ...
Longstanding US support to Rwanda established it as a hub for the export of smuggled Congolese minerals while enabling M23 to seize territory ...
We asked six experts how the DRC—and its global partners—can take this transformative path. Read on for analyses of the country's business ...
Cobalt mining has significant negative impacts on environmental health and people's well-being. Near mines, toxic dumping occurs that ...
Historical resource extraction continues to affect African economies, leaving many reliant on raw exports and vulnerable to global market shifts ...
The development objective of the Growth with Governance in the Mineral Sector Project of the DRC is to strengthen the Government's capacity to manage the ...
A United States–brokered agreement aimed at calming tensions in a region affected by violence and resource exploitation.
The area has large copper-cobalt deposits of which the extraction causes severe ecosystem damage due to pollution of water, food crops, and the ambient air.
Concessions granted to private companies to extract natural resources still have negative effects on present-day development in the DRC.
Value addition in mining implies enhancing the value of raw minerals as they progress through the supply chain from extraction to final product manufacturing.
The OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas provides government-backed due diligence ...
The 2024 US Geological Survey (USGS) report found the country is entirely dependent on imports for 12 critical minerals and more than 50% import ...
Through resource nationalism, African economies aim to prioritize ownership of resources by increasing their interests and control, as well as ...
African countries are actively pursuing an agenda for wider participation in mineral value chains, specifically midstream. – including beneficiation (which goes ...
Traceability systems can also help gather the necessary information to support a risk-based approach to identifying and addressing adverse impacts in line with.
The quest between the U.S. and China for access to crucial minerals has intensified, and both countries are using calculated tactics that ...
explores the continent's unique position in the global critical minerals ... Go to channel The African Signal · How does lithium mining work ...
Artisanal mining constitutes the second largest employment sector in the DRC, after agriculture. The currently accepted view is that formalization of the ...
From 2000 through 2020, demand for cobalt to manufacture batteries grew 26-fold. Eighty-two percent of this growth occurred in China and China's cobalt refinery ...
... illegally sourced minerals from DRC conflict zones into Apple's supply chain. ... Rwanda's backing for M23 militia's insurgency in the DRC ...
This article examines the growing corporate reliance on artisanal labour in the cobalt mines of the Democratic Republic of Congo. This shift from autonomous ...
This would require around 48,000 t of nickel, 15,000 t of manganese and 16,000 t of cobalt that has been refined into sulfate. The DRC and ...
... DRC's borders – address illicit economies and the financing of conflict actors. ... Illegal charcoal and timber trade in Eastern DRC. 07 Sep ...
Washington needs a strategy to secure America's critical minerals supply that balances onshoring through domestic mining and offshoring ...
Resource bartering doesn't deliver stability – it perpetuates institutional fragility and rarely builds public trust and legitimacy in ...
The pandemic will have a considerable economic and social impact on the country and forecasts that DRC's economy will contract 2.2 percent in 2020.
A review of DFC's portfolio shows that as of June 30, 2025, the agency has just under $1.6 billion in investments in mining projects in three ...
The foreign ministers of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda have just signed a peace deal in Washington that they hope will bring ...
But, at the center of these deals is a far-reaching U.S.-DRC Strategic Partnership Agreement (SPA) that fundamentally reshapes who controls ...
1.5. Public sector reform in the DRC takes place within a complex political economy shaped by rent distribution arrangements, uneven reform ...
New critical mineral deals offer opportunities, but transparency is key to ensuring benefits to producer countries and their citizens.
The report documents how traders buy cobalt from areas where child labour is rife and sell it to Congo Dongfang Mining (CDM), a wholly-owned ...
This report presents a comprehensive analysis of governance frameworks, challenges and opportunities across eight African countries.
With the United States and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) discussing a potential agreement on critical minerals, the Atlantic Council's ...
We also require companies to commit to continue to source 3TG minerals from the DRC, to stop companies just leaving instead of bothering with ...
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