According to the communiqué cited by the agency, the head of the Congolese government highlighted the paradox of a country whose resources fuel conflicts on its territory while they are increasingly indispensable to the transformations of the global economy.
Global demand driven by the energy transition
Judith Suminwa explained that the energy transition, the electrification of transport, energy storage, the expansion of digital infrastructures and artificial intelligence are accelerating demand for copper, cobalt, lithium, nickel and other critical minerals. The world’s leading producer of cobalt and a major copper power, the DRC is at the heart of this transformation, she added.
Congolese cobalt already supplies batteries, power grids, digital equipment and the technologies needed to decarbonize the global economy, according to the same source. For the Prime Minister, it would be unjust and dangerous for added value, jobs, know-how and technologies to remain concentrated far from the communities that make this transformation possible, and a decarbonized economy cannot be built with bloodstained minerals.
Processing on Congolese soil rather than exporting raw
The DRC rejects the model that confines producing countries to raw extraction while processing, research, technology and most of the profits are concentrated elsewhere. Judith Suminwa summed up the country’s ambition: to no longer be merely the basement of the global economy, but to become a workshop, a laboratory and a sovereign partner.
The government intends to process more cobalt and copper on national territory, develop battery precursors and industrial components, train engineers, support researchers and integrate Congolese companies into global value chains. It also wants to build, with African and international partners, competitive regional industries that create jobs, skills and shared prosperity.
Modernization of mining governance
Domestically, the DRC is continuing to modernize its mining governance, according to the communiqué: transparency of contracts, extractive revenues and beneficial owners, strengthening of the mining cadastre, deployment of traceability mechanisms and the fight against fraud.
The country is also accelerating the formalization of artisanal mining, the supervision of traders, the organization of cooperatives and the securing of mining areas.
The stance comes as the DRC occupies a central place in the competition between major powers for access to critical minerals, a file that conditions both its public revenues, local industrialization and the stability of several mining provinces.
ACP – M&B
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