Texas Firm in Talks for Congo’s Rubaya Mine

[noumoe]

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is negotiating with Texas businessman Gentry Beach’s consortium for control of the Rubaya coltan mine, a major source of conflict minerals, as part of a U.S.-backed effort to stabilize the region and counter Chinese dominance over DRC’s mineral wealth, including 70% of global cobalt reserves.

Beach, chairman of Dallas-based America First Global and a 2016 Trump campaign finance co-chair, leads a group including Swiss commodities firm Mercuria and Congolese state miner Sakima. The consortium aims to invest over $500 million to transform Rubaya, which produces half of DRC’s coltan—critical for tantalum and niobium in electronics—into a “world-class example of how to do mining,” a member said. A separate venture with Mercuria, Beach’s firm, and Rwanda’s Ngali Holdings plans to build a smelter in Kigali to process coltan legally, bypassing smuggling networks.

https://open.substack.com/pub/thedailyd ... Share=true