The United States just flipped the script on critical minerals, and Beijing is going to need a minute to process. In a whirlwind 24 hours, a Chinese-backed cobalt deal in the Democratic Republic of Congo got axed, Trump teased a rare earths pact with Ukraine, and a Gates-backed mining firm made a play for Congolese lithium.
If that’s not a full-court press on China’s mineral dominance, what is?
Let’s start with Chemaf Resources Ltd., a cobalt and copper mine in Congo backed by Trafigura that was all set to be gobbled up by China’s Norin Mining Ltd. Unfortunately for China, Congo didn’t approve the deal. That means the sale is dead in the water, and Washington is quietly high-fiving itself.
It’s just the latest of three big moves for the United States in the critical minerals space in the last two days. And it’s not just big news for the United States—it’s big for China as well.
China already controls an absurd percentage of the world’s cobalt supply, and blocking this deal helps slow Beijing’s mineral monopoly. The problem? Chemaf is drowning in $900 million of debt, and without an easy off-ramp to China, it now needs a new plan to stay afloat.
Meanwhile, over in Washington, Trump is swinging his executive order pen like a hammer at the U.S.’s reliance on foreign minerals. His latest includes tapping emergency powers to boost domestic production of critical minerals—and maybe even coal. He’s also finalizing a minerals deal with Ukraine, which, considering the ongoing war, adds another layer of geopolitical spice.
And just when it looked like the United States was done shaking things up, KoBold Metals—a mining firm backed by Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos—dropped a proposal to take over one of the world’s richest lithium deposits in Congo. This would throw another wrench into China’s grip on Africa’s minerals and potentially resolve a messy dispute between Australia’s AVZ Minerals, China’s Zijin Mining, and the Congolese government.