A US-Congo Minerals Deal: A Defeat For Communist China?

Austin Bay on Apr 2, 2025

In mid-February, a firm representing a Democratic Republic of the Congo legislator contacted several U.S. officials. The recipients included Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

The letter sketched a sub-Saharan version of President Donald Trump's Ukraine minerals peace initiative. Would the U.S. be interested in acquiring or investing in Congo's enormous and globally unique trove of critical and rare mineral resources?

The DRC has gold, copper, cobalt, tin, tantalum (coltan), lithium, gold and diamonds. The uranium for America's World War II atom bombs came from the then-Belgian Congo. Mobile phone and computer manufacturers need coltan (columbite-tantalite). Cobalt is a 21st-century treasure. Congo is the world's largest producer of cobalt ore, a must-have for electric vehicles.

Beijing coveted the DRC's mineral trove -- a global position of immense economic import. In 2006 and 2007, Chinese front companies began buying DRC cobalt, copper and rare earth mineral operations. In 2008 and 2009, China signed the so-called China Deal of 2008 the DRC's Kabila dictatorship.

The overall deal was supposedly worth billions. China was supposed to build roads and other infrastructure. It built ... next to nothing. In 2021, Congo condemned China and began legal proceedings to end Beijing's fraud.

Back to 2025. The DRC offers the U.S. access and co-ownership of its mineral wealth. In exchange, the U.S. must use its unique global economic, political and military power to secure "regional stability."

And there's the rub. Regional stability is what at best passes for peace in one of the most war-torn, strife-ridden and disease-plagued regions of the planet.

The next paragraphs illustrate my war, strife and plague points.

Since 2000, the United Nations deployed an armed peacekeeping force in the DRC. At the moment, the peacekeepers are named MONUSCO. The force has around 10,000 soldiers who are supposed to be protecting civilians and consolidating peace. However, there is little peace to consolidate in eastern Congo's North and South Kivu provinces. In 2018 and 2020, the Ebola virus savaged both Kivus.

Violence kills more than the virus ever did. In 2024, the DRC government called for MONUSCO to leave the country because civilians in eastern Congo claimed the U.N. force was failing to protect them from murderous militias.

The most effective militia is M23 - the March 23 Movement. Last time I looked, M23 had taken control of North Kivu's capital, Goma.

The DRC government calls M23 as a terrorist organization controlled by Rwanda in order to exploit Congolese mineral resources. Rwanda, currently led by a government dominated by the Tutsi tribe, says M23 is a Congolese Tutsi militia defending Tutsi rights.

The most insane eastern Congo militia is the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF). It began as a Ugandan Islamist terror group and has morphed into an Islamic State affiliate. Its calling card is murder by machete -- or hand grenade.

In mid-March, Al Jazeera (which gets credit for following the DRC's chaos) summarized the Congo's strategy. DRC leaders hope Washington "will deploy troops to help contain the conflict in exchange for rights to the minerals ... however, say it is unclear whether such an alliance would align with US President Donald Trump's 'America First' policy, and that Washington would be more likely to take a less hands-on approach ..."

In mid-March, DRC President Felix Tshisekedi met with Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas). They discussed the Congo's fractured security situation and potential U.S. investment. Jackson was recognized as a Trump special envoy.

Jackson later told media: "We want to work so that American companies can come and invest and work in the DRC. And to do that, we have to make sure that there is a peaceful environment."

A noncommittal statement of interest? I think so.

The U.S. has no interest in boots on the ground in Central Africa's chaos.

The U.S. does have an immense interest in denying China access to Congo's mineral trove -- and the minerals possessed by neighboring Zambia and Angola.

Major fact: Congo wants to make a deal with the U.S. in order to escape China's corrupt grasp.

Another fact: U.N. officials insist that the current force will withdraw from Congo "as quickly as possible."

Looks like Trump's Ukraine notion that mineral deals for dependable dollars and implied U.S. protection may have traction in several of the world's hardest corners. In Congo's case, it would deal Communist China a strategic defeat.

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To find out more about Austin Bay and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.

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