Africa’s Metals and Minerals Crucial to US Defense and Progress, Analysts Say

Washington locked into ‘desperate game of catchup,’ as it scrambles to secure access to essential strategic elements for computers, electric vehicle batteries.

Artisanal miners carry sacks of ore at the Shabara artisanal cobalt mine near Kolwezi, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, on Oct. 12, 2022. Demand for the metal is exploding because of its use in the rechargeable batteries that power mobile phones and electric cars. Junior Kannah/AFP via Getty Images

JOHANNESBURG—In 2016, several U.S. companies made what technology experts agree was one of the most serious strategic errors ever made by the United States in Africa.

Concerned about ongoing conflict and human rights abuses, and a failure to maintain their cobalt mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the companies sold them to China.