DRC & The Cobalt Crossfire

Our first release of 2023 is an e-Book that comes in the form of a research paper, entitled ‘DRC & the Cobalt Crossfire’. It uncovers the political tension between two world-powerhouses: China and the USA, and how their interests in the mining of battery minerals particularly in Africa, have caused detrimental consequences for the DRC. The pursuit of these minerals has been ongoing, and so the paper seeks to answer one leading question: what is the role of the U.S and China’s war for the battery mineral market in stifling growth in the DRC? When I refer to “battery minerals”, it’s metals such as cobalt, copper, lithium that is used in the process of producing batteries. These metals are a vital component in the production of lithium-ion batteries, used to power electronics. The title states ‘crossfire’ because evidence of recent events over the years have revealed a vested interest on both sides in the wealth of cobalt reserves that Congo hosts. The perspective in literature from a wide range of sources both academic and online, is that both sides acted in ways to “one-up” the other, as part of a race to dominance in the electrical vehicle market in the coming decade. In this race, China is well further ahead and poised to maintain its stature of being the world’s biggest supplier of batteries. With many critical of the conduct of both the U.S. and China, literature, statistical data and historical events all point to Congo DRC being the ‘loser’ in the game. Despite its contribution to the electrical vehicle market, DR Congo remains one of the world’s poorest countries in terms of economic GDP.
 
Download the full paper for £0.00!