The United States of America intended to reduce China’s influence in the Democratic Republic of Congo when Félix Tshisekedi took power in 2019, and are now disappointed with the fact that they have not succeeded. At stake is the mining sector, which China has investments in, which leaves the US out of the Cobalt business.
Four years later, he writes the website Africa Intelligencethe United States is bitterly disappointed that it has not been able to break Beijing’s hegemony on strategic mining issues.
The visit was confidential, the matter strategic. US diplomat Amos Hochstein is used to these trips not appearing on any official agenda. In March, Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s top adviser on energy security matters quietly arrived in Lubumbashi. The mining town, which looks more like a picturesque rural town, is one of the places where cobalt, copper and part of the world’s energy future are traded. Hochstein, said to be close to President Joe Biden, is one of the people planning the new US strategy on the issue.
The diplomat may have spoken with Congolese officials – especially senior executives at the state-owned mining company Gécamines – regarding combating child labor or fiscal transparency. But above all, he focused on the sensitive issue of renegotiating contracts sealed during Joseph Kabila’s 2001-2019 presidency with Chinese private groups and parastatals, as well as the state.
Washington e Tshisekedi x Pequim e Kabila
Some of these contracts were of particular interest to Hochstein. Like the one celebrated in 2008 with Sicomines, a joint venture between Gécamines and a consortium of four Chinese giants, namely Sinohydro, China Railway Group, Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt Co and China Machinery Engineering Corp, to explore cobalt and copper deposits. Another is Tenke Fungurume, one of the largest cobalt and copper mines in the world, located regarding 200 km north of Lubumbashi.
The deposit was acquired in 2016 by the China Molybdenum Co (CMOC) group of the North American mining company Freeport-McMoRan, which at the time was experiencing financial difficulties. The deal was valued at USD 2.65 billion.
In May 2021, Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi announced that these contracts would be renegotiated, but did not provide details on how he planned to do so. Behind the scenes, however, he had the support of the Donald Trump administration. As early as 2020, consultants and experts paid by the US Treasury and Department of State were sent to Kinshasa to scrutinize these deals and identify unfavorable terms for the DRC.
Washington, at that time, was seeking to put pressure on the newly elected President Tshisekedi. He was happy to ignore the fact that the new president came to power in early 2019 following a particularly contentious election and a secret deal with Kabila. Tshisekedi, candidate of the Union pour la Démocratie et le Progrès Social (UDPS), represented the first peaceful handover of power in the country’s history. The United States felt comfortable with this and saw in it an opportunity to reduce Kabila and China’s lingering influence.
By taking control of Tenke Fungurume, considered a major project by the Xi Jinping government, China has further consolidated its position as the undisputed world leader in the electric battery industry, with cobalt, which the DRC produces more than 60% of the cobalt used in the world, allowed Beijing to become the main player of this strategic sector.
The website further writes that the Americans, “very aware of the stakes, worked with Tshisekedi’s management to scrutinize the activities of CMOC and its Congolese subsidiary, Tenke Fungurume Mining (TFM), in which Gécamines has a 20% stake. In the scope of this joint venturecreated in 2010, the Chinese group is suspected of deliberately underestimating the mine’s available reserves to avoid paying royalties to its Congolese state partner”.
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