While US President Donald Trump has ripped up much of his predecessor’s climate and foreign policy, he has pushed forward with Joe Biden’s pursuit of metals and minerals abroad while shifting the strategic focus from clean energy to military use, analysts say.
Biden spent some of his final days as US leader in Angola, talking up a railway that will bring copper and cobalt from Central Africa to the continent’s west coast where the materials can be shipped to the US.
Since coming to power in January, Trump has discussed deals to provide military assistance to the war-torn nations of Ukraine and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in return for minerals, threatened to take over mineral-rich Greenland, and is reportedly considering a new law that would bypass UN discussions so as to allow mining of the deep seabed in international waters.
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This week, Massad Boulos, Trump’s senior advisor on Africa, travelled to DRC as his first port of call shortly after being appointed. In a meeting with DRC President Felix Tshisekedi, Boulos – father-in-law to Trump’s daughter – said the US had reviewed the DRC’s minerals proposal. He said he was “pleased to announce that the President and I have agreed on a path forward for its development,” according to a statement from the DRC government.
While the details of the mooted deal are not yet public, Boulos said he would work with Tshisekedi to build a deeper relationship that benefits both the Congolese and American people and “to stimulate American private sector investment in the DRC, particularly in the mining sector”.
A day earlier, Trump exempted key minerals like copper and cobalt from the new trade tariffs he slapped on nations around the world.
The big unanswered question is why his administration is so keen to secure supplies of these resources, which are increasingly sought after because they are key to advancing the clean energy transition.
Fadhel Kaboub, associate professor of economics at Denison University in Ohio, said Trump’s interest is likely driven primarily by the importance of critical minerals for military and high-tech purposes. “The Trump administration is known for its anti-climate action rhetoric,” he said, adding that its priority is definitely not the energy transition, but other competitive sectors such as defence.
Once extracted and processed, minerals like copper and cobalt – which the DRC has in abundance – can be used in clean technology or for military equipment, among other things. Copper can be used to channel green electricity or as a liner for anti-tank missiles. Cobalt can be used for electric vehicle batteries or alloys for fighter jets.
Stockpiling critical minerals
The Trump administration – which heavily favours fossil fuel extraction over clean energy expansion – has publicly emphasised the military uses of minerals. Adam Burstein, the Department of Defense’s technical director for strategic and critical materials, said in January that the US is committed to “stockpiling critical minerals” to reduce the risk of supply chain disruptions from China, which dominates the sector.
In February, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio was asked about the Dominican Republic’s minerals. He said the world needs these for “technologies that are used for defence” and other advanced technologies, adding that “we want to help develop this wealth”.
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When asked if the US government’s rhetoric on sourcing minerals for defence could shift these materials away from clean technologies, Ellie Saklatvala, head of nonferrous metal pricing at Argus Media, said there may be times when “demand for metals for defence applications competes directly with demand for clean energy applications”.
When it comes to raw materials, Saklatvala added, the defence sector can usually pay more for supplies, and this can have a significant impact on overall price levels if large volumes are acquired quickly.
Thomas Kavanagh, editor for battery materials at Argus Media, said there is potential for competition between these two sectors to grow “especially as cobalt going into the US defence industry is quite limited to a small number of suppliers, mainly outside of the DRC”.
DRC lobbying campaign
While Ukraine is still working on a diplomatically tricky deal with Washington for access to its minerals and Greenland has so far resisted overtures and even threats from the US to annex it from Denmark, the DRC under Tshisekedi has actively lobbied for a deal with the Trump administration in exchange for protection from the Rwanda-backed M23 rebels which have grabbed swathes of the DRC’s east.
Shortly after Trump’s election, documents submitted to the US government under the Foreign Agents Registration Act show that the DRC began employing a Republican lobbyist called Karl Von Batten to lobby in Washington on its behalf.
By the grace of almighty God, we won the Presidency and the Senate and will win the House@GOP @DCGOP #TeamTrump pic.twitter.com/wNe4RuR7OP
— Dr. Karl Von Batten, FRSPH (@KVONBATTEN) November 7, 2024
By calling and emailing contacts at the House of Representatives foreign affairs committee, Von Batten managed to set up a Zoom call between its chair, Brian Mast, and Tshisekedi on February 11, according to a document published online by the US Department of Justice.
Von Batten then organised a five-day visit by a delegation from the DRC government to Washington in late February, at a cost of $350,000, where they met with US defence, state department and trade officials.
According to the official document signed by Von Batten, strengthening “military and investment ties” was on the agenda, as were “preliminary discussions about a potential meeting” between Tshisekedi and Trump and planning a media strategy on “public narratives surrounding DRC initiatives”.
Since that visit, Republican Congressman Ronny Jackson travelled to the DRC in March to meet with Tshisekedi. According to the DRC government, Jackson was acting as an envoy for Trump and said in the meeting: “We want to work so that American companies can come and invest and work in the DRC. And for that to happen, we must ensure that there is an environment of peace”.
Tshisekedi also went on Trump’s favourite TV channel – Fox News – to talk about the proposed deal. “We are very happy to say that with the Trump administration, things are moving a lot faster on both sides,” he said in French, adding, “I think the US is able to use either pressure or sanctions to make sure that armed groups that are in the DRC can be kept at bay”.
A troubled deal
Henry Sanderson, associate fellow at defence and security think-tank the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), said the DRC is trying to “curry favour” and appeal to Trump’s “transactional” interests.
But a minerals deal with the DRC could face a “big hurdle”, Claude Kabemba, chief executive officer of Southern Africa Resource Watch, said in a policy brief.
The DRC mining sector’s “lack of transparency and accountability” could undermine a partnership, he argued, noting that “it would be difficult” for the US private sector to operate openly in the prevailing conditions of corruption and mismanagement.
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Another roadblock, according to RUSI’s Sanderson, is that the DRC wants security in return – and Trump has indicated that he does not want to get involved in foreign wars.
However, Kabemba warned that if the US does enter the DRC conflict, it could be on the other side, backing the rebels who currently control mineral-rich areas and are threatening to take over the capital Kinshasa. The rebels have, over the past year, advanced and occupied major cities in the country’s eastern region – including mining sites in North and South Kivu provinces – with large deposits of coltan.
Members of the European Parliament in February called on the European Commission to suspend an EU deal to develop sustainable raw materials value chains with Rwanda, until it stops interfering in neighbouring DRC, including exporting minerals mined from M23-controlled areas, they said in a statement. Rwanda denies that it is involved in such activities.
Kabemba believes Trump may have fewer qualms than his European counterparts. “A deal with the M23 rebels might be more appealing to Trump in the current situation,” he wrote. Trump could choose to do business with “the side that offers the best options for sustainable and long-term access to critical minerals and rare earth elements”, he added.
Making reference to the conflict during his visit this week, US Africa advisor Boulos said “there can be no economic prosperity without security”, adding that the US-DRC relationship has great potential and would involve multi-billion dollar investments which can only thrive in the most conducive business environment.
“We want a lasting peace that affirms the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the DRC, and lays the foundation for a thriving regional economy,” Boulos emphasised.