Growing mining sector cooperation between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the United States will likely help improve Washington's security of supply of several critical minerals, but China's continued hold on global mineral processing in the country and a likely surge in political instability ahead of Congo's 2028 general elections will curtail the extent of these gains in the coming years. On March 27, U.S. mining company Virtus Minerals completed its $30 million acquisition of Congo-focused miner Chemaf and pledged to raise $720 million in financing to upgrade and develop its newly acquired mines and mining licenses. This came after the U.S.-linked Orion Critical Mineral Consortium and Switzerland-based commodity trading company Glencore announced on Feb. 3 their signing of a memorandum of understanding regarding the U.S. consortium's acquisition of a 40% stake in the commodity traders' assets in Congo at a cost of $9 billion. Meanwhile, Congolese state-owned miner...
