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A new mining company supported by Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos is expanding to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in a commitment that the nation rich in resources will be crucial for the efforts of the United States to compete with China for the necessary minerals for the energy transition.
Kobold Metals, which displays artificial intelligence to identify non -exploited mineral deposits, was betting “Great” Dr. Congo, said Benjamin Katabuka, his newly appointed general director of the country. The company would recruit in the country and planned to request licenses to explore lithium, copper and cobalt, he said.
The impulse to DR Congo occurs when the African nation seeks to ensure a mineral agreement with the United States, in conversations that are part of the ambitions of President Donald Trump to break China’s dependence for metals.
“Kobold is looking to go in this country in this country in terms of investment,” said Katabuka, a former Freeport-Mcmoran employee who has more than a decade of experience in the industry in Dr. Congo. “Investments could be in billions.”
Massad Boulos, the newly appointed Trump main advisor for Africa, said last week that he and the president of Dr. Congo Felix Tshisekedi had discussed in recent days the development of a Mineral Pact of Congo US-DR and had “aligned a way forward.”
“We have similar discussions with other neighboring countries,” added Boulos. “Our role is to facilitate those private sector investments” in the mining sector, even with the financing of the US government, he said.
Dr Congo is the number one supplier in the world of Cobalt, a metal used in the production of batteries for electric vehicles. But it is also in the midst of an armed conflict that has interrupted mining in the eastern part of the country, where the M23 rebel group has seized large areas of land.
Kobold, based in Berkeley, raised $ 537 million during his last round in January of investors, including the advances of Gates, Energy Ventures, whose sponsors include Bezos and the former Mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg. The company has raised $ 1 billion to date.
Katabuka acknowledged that it was “difficult” to do business in Dr Congo and that the perception of corruption was “high.” Kobold would insist on “high standards” for its operations, he added.
Separately, several of the billionaires who support the mining operation have environmental interests in DR Congo through their philanthropic foundations.
The Bezos Earth background had pledged to protect the Congo basin, which the UN estimates that it stores approximately three years in global greenhouse gases, “degradation, deforestation and loss of biodiversity” with subsidies of $ 110mn. The Gates Foundation is supporting agricultural programs in the region.
Kobold is also among companies interested in developing a huge lithium deposit in DR Congo that is the object of a legal dispute between AVZ minerals in Australia and Zijin mining backed by the state of China.
The deposit had “the potential to become a large -scale and long -lived lithium mine,” Kobold wrote to the Dr Congo government in January, according to a letter obtained by the Financial Times.
Mfikeyi Makayi, executive director of Kobold Metals Africa, said the company was prepared to “analyze” the possible acquisition objectives, although its main approach was to make new discoveries.
Many mines in Dr Congo are directed by Chinese groups, and have not operated the large US mining companies there since Freeport-Mcmarlan sold their participation in the Cop-Fungurume copper mine to CMOC of China in 2016.
Katabuka said that the Congolese government was “interested in some Western investors entering the country”, which would help “balance” the presence of China.
Dr. Congo wanted more metal processing within the country, but lacked the infrastructure necessary to do so, with mining companies even “struggling to obtain enough energy for its production,” he said.
