Tag Archives: coltan ore Congo

The Scramble for Congo 21st Century Style

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During the 19th century’s Scramble for Africa, European countries raced to secure territory and wealth across the continent. Now, African powers are grabbing resources from a neighbor crippled by infighting and ill-equipped to defend itself. Caught in the middle is the Democratic Republic of Congo, a country the size of Western Europe whose forests conceal a wealth of gold, diamonds and coltan, a key component in smartphones and computers. These mineral riches are turning what was already a region plagued by militia violence into a battleground, as Rwanda and its local allies seize coltan supplies while Uganda and its proxies move to take over gold mines to the northeast, according to United Nations and Ugandan officials…Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and Rwandan President Paul Kagame are pouring troops and weapons into Congo, while their Congolese allies, who control strategic border crossings, secure smuggling routes to move more minerals to the global markets.

In 2024, Rwanda-backed M23 rebels seized the coltan-mining town of Rubaya, where fighters bring in around $800,000 each month by taxing traders. Rebel fighters have doubled diggers’ wages to encourage them to keep working, and they rely on forced labor to widen roads to accommodate trucks transporting coltan into Rwanda along with gold. According to the U.N., some 4,000 Rwandan soldiers are fighting inside Congo, a report that Rwandan authorities have denied.

Excerpt from While War Rages, Congo’s Neighbors Smuggle Out Its Gold and Mineral Wealth, WSJ, Apr. 7, 2025

Get Down and (Very) Dirty: How to Break Free from China’s Grip on Rare Earths and Minerals

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The Biden administration held talks with three firms in the fall of 2024 about purchasing one of the world’s largest non-Chinese cobalt producers…The talks over Chemaf, a mining company based in the Democratic Republic of Congo, are part of a push by the administration to secure global supplies of a metal used in everything from jet fighters and drones to electric-vehicle batteries. For more than a decade, Chinese companies have spent billions of dollars buying out U.S. and European miners in Congo, which produces nearly 75% of the world’s cobalt supply. That has put China in a dominant position in both the production and processing of the mineral.

It has been difficult for the U.S. government to interest American investors in any sector in Congo because of the country’s poor infrastructure, limited skilled labor, resource nationalism and reputation for government corruption. U.S. government officials have spoken with mining and artificial-intelligence company KoBold Metals, copper miner First Quantum Minerals and investment firm Orion Resource Partners about participating in a deal to acquire Chemaf, either separately or jointly…

Chemaf, which says its mines could produce 20,000 tons of cobalt annually—making it one of the world’s largest cobalt producers—was put up for sale in 2023 by its founder, Shiraz Virji…When The Wall Street Journal visited Chemaf’s Mutoshi mine in 2018, freelance Congolese miners could be seen descending underground without helmets, shoes or safety equipment. Miners were using picks, shovels and bare hands to unearth rocks rich with the metal. Water sometimes rushed into holes and drowned people, and an earth mover buried one alive, said local workers and mine officials…

In June 2024, Chemaf agreed to sell itself to Chinese state-backed Norin Mining. Shortly after, U.S. pressure helped block the sale…

Excerpts from  Alexandra Wexler and Julie Steinberg, How the U.S. Is Trying to Challenge China’s Cobalt Chokehold, WSJ, Oct. 15, 2024

How Murder, Torture and Rape Fuel the Technological Revolution

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Congo is the world’s leading producer of coltan, from which tantalum is extracted. Tantalum is in hot demand because of its growing use in consumer products, from smartphones to laptops and it is critical for the defense industry (e.g., Apple iPhones, SpaceX rockets, IBM computers).

Coltan is mined in the country’s restive east, a region that has been engulfed in a decadeslong war between rebel groups and the Congolese army…A powerful militia backed by neighboring Rwanda has taken over swaths of eastern Congo, driving some two million people from their homes as fighters kill, torture and rape civilians. The militia, known as M23, has also seized control of Congo’s coltan production and transport, according to United Nations investigators, supply-chain experts, researchers and local traders. 

Now, a network of smuggling routes is increasingly being used to move ore illegally from militia-controlled mines in eastern Congo to neighboring Rwanda. From there, it is sold as Rwandan, and hence “conflict-free,” to smelters around the world, but primarily in China. 

M23 fighters levy taxes on informal coltan miners, who dig the ore from the ground, mostly by hand. The fighters also tax the movement of coltan, providing the militia with revenue to purchase weapons and other supplies. Overall, the trade generates around $300,000 a month for the fighters, according to Bintou Keita, the head of the U.N. mission in Congo….U.S. lawmakers have sought to prevent minerals commonly mined in eastern Congo—tin, tungsten, tantalum and gold—from financing conflict in the region. Legislation embedded in the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act requires U.S.-listed companies to disclose their use of the minerals, known as the 3TGs, as well as steps they are taking to prevent inadvertently financing armed groups. It doesn’t, however, oblige companies to remove potentially tainted materials from their supply chains…

Other armed groups are also profiting from the illegal coltan trade, including an alliance of militias that is helping the Congolese military fight M23, according to rights groups and U.N. researchers. The alliance, known as the Wazalendo, which U.N. investigators say is armed by Congo’s military, includes groups that are under international sanctions for war crimes. M23 and the Wazalendo are both recruiting child soldiers, raping women and girls, looting, murdering civilians and committing other atrocities, according to rights groups and U.N. investigators. Like M23, the Wazalendo are collecting illegal taxes on coltan at roadblocks along transportation routes, as well as from some mining sites. 

Excerpt from Alexandra Wexler, How This Conflict Mineral Gets Smuggled Into Everyday Tech,  WSJ, Oct. 6, 2024

At Gunpoint in Congo: Is Coltan Worse than Oil?

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Tantalum, a metal used in smartphone and laptop batteries, is extracted from coltan ore. In 2019 40% of the world’s coltan was produced in the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to official data. More was sneaked into Rwanda and exported from there. Locals dig for the ore by hand in Congo’s eastern provinces, where more than 100 armed groups hide in the bush. Some mines are run by warlords who work with rogue members of the Congolese army to smuggle the coltan out.

When demand for electronics soared in the early 2000s, coltan went from being an obscure, semi-valuable ore to one of the world’s most sought-after minerals. Rebels fought over mines and hunted for new deposits. Soldiers forced locals to dig for it at gunpoint. Foreign money poured into Congo. Armed groups multiplied, eager for a share.

Then, in 2010, a clause in America’s Dodd-Frank Act forced American firms to audit their supply chains. The aim was to ensure they were not using minerals such as coltan, gold and tin that were funding Congo’s protracted war. For six months mines in eastern Congo were closed, as the authorities grappled with the new rules. Even when they reopened, big companies, such as Intel and Apple, shied away from Congo’s coltan, fearing a bad press.

The “Obama law”, as the Congolese nickname Dodd-Frank, did reduce cash flows to armed groups. But it also put thousands of innocent people out of work. A scheme to trace supply chains known as ITSCI run by the International Tin Association based in London and an American charity, Pact, helped bring tentative buyers back to Congo.  ITSCI staff turn up at mining sites to see if armed men are hanging about, pocketing profits. They check that no children are working in the pits. If a mine is considered safe and conflict-free, government agents at the sites put tags onto the sacks of minerals. However, some unscrupulous agents sell tags on the black market, to stick on coltan from other mines. “The agents are our brothers,” Martin says. It is hard to police such a violent, hilly region with so few roads. Mines are reached by foot or motorbike along winding, muddy paths.

For a long time those who preferred to export their coltan legally had to work with itsci, which held the only key to the international market. Miners groaned that itsci charged too much: roughly 5% of the value of tagged coltan. When another scheme called “Better Sourcing” emerged, Congo’s biggest coltan exporter, Société Minière de Bisunzu, signed up to it instead.

Excerpts from Smugglers’ paradise: Congo, Economist, Jan. 23, 2021