The Democratic Republic of the Congo is in conversations with a Donald Trump Texan entrepreneur to make a notorious source of conflict minerals a central part of the peace plans backed by the United States for the region.
Gentry Beach, president of the investment firm America First Global and former Finance Co -President of the Trump campaign in 2016, is part of a consortium that negotiates for rights to the Rubay Coltan mine, said Congolese officials and people familiar with the matter.
The mine, outside the rubber city, in the east of Dr. Congo, has been at the center of the smuggling Colta used in the financing of one of the oldest and most mortal wars in Africa.
Rubay, who produces approximately half of the Coltan of Dr Congo, was captured in January by M23 rebels backed by Rwanda that since then have supervised and taxed their production. The mine is considered by geologists as one of the most promising sources commercially for the tantalium and the niobium used in the electronic industry.
The people involved in the discussions expect, if an agreement is completed, the mine will be part of a series of US investments that support the new approach of the Trump administration to finish the fight between Dr. Congo, Ruanda and the militias of power.
Washington, who has negotiated a peace agreement with the parties at war, sees hanging the perspective of billions of dollars in US investment in mining and infrastructure as a key to persuading them to stop fighting, in an example of the transactional style of Trump’s transactional diplomacy.
Rubay was one of several assets, the president of Dr. Congo, Felix Tshisekedi, promoted when he approached Washington for the first time in February offering mining rights in exchange for help to end a rebellion in the east of the country, according to Congolese officials.
Both Washington and Kinshasa have expressed the hope that any agreement that also flows the Chinese domain in what is the richest mineral store in Africa. DR Congo represents about 70 percent of the world cobalt, as well as some of the largest reserves of the golden continent, copper, colta, tin and diamonds.
“When the United States intervened, they wanted to frame their approach to a peace agreement differently than in the past,” said a regional participant in the plans, under condition of anonymity. “They were looking at what the commercial and economic side of the agreement would be that allows this region to prosper, so we do not return to this.”
Beach, a former coverage fund manager and long -standing university friend of Trump’s son, Donald JR, has experience in Dr. Congo who dates back to a previous 2004 mining company. Beach also participated in companies in DR Congo with the late legend of the Congo Dikembo Mutombo Basketball.
Although Donald Jr and Beach are friends of the University, the president’s son has no participation in Beach’s commercial companies, according to a person close to Donald Jr.
America First Global, which declined to comment, is part of a consortium that includes the Swiss Mercuria Basic Products Group, which hopes to develop the mine in a joint business with the miner of the Congolese state Sakima. Mercuria, who also did not comment, would buy compensation from the mine, which according to the people involved may require more than $ 500 million in investment.
“Rubay is an important part of the peace process … We hope to expand it dramatically, to reorganize it and turn it into a world class example of how to do mining,” said a consortium participant.
The White House did not respond to a request for comments.
Dr. Congo and Ruanda signed an agreement on Friday to end the conflict, which dates back to the sequelae of the 1994 genocide in neighboring Rwanda, when millions of refugees fled across the border.
The ministers of foreigners from both countries signed the peace agreement in Washington in what Trump had acclaimed Truth Social as “a great day for Africa and a great day for the world.”
But it is not clear how the M23 rebels backed by Rwanda can be persuaded to withdraw from the stripes from the territory they control, or to renounce cash cows such as Rubay.
The United States International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), the organization of private sector development established by Trump during its first mandate, can support some of the United States investments as part of a separated strategic mineral agreement with Dr. Congo, officials said officials.
This economic component of the settlement, designed to announce US investment in cobalt, copper and lithium mines, as well as infrastructure, is still far away, according to people familiar with conversations. The DFC said that “it cannot comment on the transactions that it may or may not be considering due to commercial sensibilities.”
Rubay has become synonymous with infernal conditions and the looting of Dr Congo’s wealth by his neighbors.
It has been controlled by different militias as the 30 -year conflict has decreased and fluid, with its production frequently smuggled to international markets through Rwanda and Uganda, according to reports by UN experts.
In the long term, part of the coltan mined on the site would be legally exported through Rwanda and would be processed to export in a new foundry in Kigali. The foundry would be built by a separate consortium composed of Mercuria, the state investor of América de Beach’s First and the state investor Rwanda Ngali Holdings, according to people familiar with negotiations.
Some regional experts remain skeptical about the plans, given the central role that Rubay has played in the food conflict. But a person familiar with the matter argued that the agreement would be “all about businesses building the bridges.”
Additional reports by Alex Rogers and Guy Chazan
