The world is racing against global warming, and bulldozers are hollowing out a yawning new canyon in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The vast expanse of untouched land was controlled by an American company for more than a decade. A Chinese mining conglomerate has bought it and is racing to get its treasure: millions of tons of cobalt.
Kyahile Mangi has lived here for a long time. The walls of mud-brick homes will crack once the blasting starts. Women worry about hippo attacks while doing laundry and dishes in the river. A manager from the mine will tell everyone that they need to move.
Mr. Mangi, the village chief, knows residents will not share in the mine's wealth.
One of the largest and purest reserves of cobalt in the world can be found in this wooded stretch of the southeast Democratic Republic of Congo.
The gray metal has historically been of interest to miners. It is used in electric-car batteries that help them run longer without a charge.
The natural resources of this impoverished Central African country are being exploited by outsiders. The United States spent decades and billions of dollars trying to protect its mining interests in the country after turning to the Democratic Republic of the Congo for the purpose of building the bombs used in Nagasaki and Hiroshima.
With more than two-thirds of the world's cobalt production coming from the country, it is once again taking center stage as major automakers commit to battling climate change by transitioning from gasoline-burning vehicles to battery-powered ones. The United States and the oil-rich Middle East are not as abundant in minerals and metals as they once were.
The clean energy revolution, meant to save the planet from perilously warming temperatures in an age of enlightened self-interest, is caught in a familiar cycle of exploitation, greed and gamesmanship.
The image is.
The village chief is Kyahile Mangi. He is worried that his community will be relocated.
The Times sent reporters across three continents to cover the competition for cobalt, a relatively obscure raw material that has gained exceptional value in a world trying to set fossil fuels aside.
The race for cobalt has set off a power struggle in the Democratic Republic of the Africa, a storehouse of these increasingly prized resources, and attracted foreigners intent on dominating the next era in global energy.
A rivalry between China and the United States could have far-reaching implications for the shared goal of protecting the earth. The Chinese government has bought two of the country's largest cobalt deposits over the past five years, with both the Obama and Trump administrations having stood idly by.
China and the United States have entered a new game as the significance of those purchases becomes clearer. President Biden acknowledged the United States had lost some ground during a visit to a GM factory in Detroit. He said that China and the rest of the world are catching up, and that we risked losing our edge as a nation. We are going to turn that around in a big, big way.
Where clean energy metals are produced.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is located in Africa.
Where are they processed?
China processes key metals.
Where clean energy metals are produced.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is located in Africa.
Where are they processed?
China processes key metals.
Where clean energy metals are produced.
Where are they processed?
China processes key metals.
Where clean energy metals are produced.
Where are they processed?
China processes key metals.
The International Energy Agency is a source.
By The New York Times.
China Molybdenum bought the Kisanfu site from a mining giant with a checkered history that was once one of the largest producers of cobalt in the country.
The Biden administration warned six months after the sale that China might use its growing dominance of cobalt to disrupt the American push toward electric vehicles by squeezing out U.S. manufacturers. A national security official with knowledge of the matter says that the United States is pressing for access to supplies from allies.
Chinese-owned mines in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are where Ford, General Motor and other American companies buy components for their batteries. A long-range vehicle from the company requires more than a pound of the metal.
A resident living near the Kisanfu mine showed off some rocks he found.
Tensions over minerals and metals are rattling the electric vehicle market.
The metal's prices increased through the rest of the year after a deadly riot in July near a port in South Africa where much of the metal is exported to China and elsewhere.
The leading forecaster in the mining industry said last month that the rising cost of raw materials was likely to drive up battery costs for the first time in years, threatening to disrupt automakers plans to attract customers with competitively priced electric cars.
The mineral supply crunch needs to be confronted, said Jim Farley, Ford's chief executive.
He said at an event in September that they don't have much time to solve the problems.
Ford is spending billions of dollars to build their own battery plants in the United States, and are rushing to curb the need for newly mined cobalt by developing substitute or recycling. A Ford spokeswoman said that they do not see the issue of cobalt as a constraint.
The fight against climate change has been advanced because of increased mining and refining of cobalt by Chinese companies. The International Energy Agency expects a shortage of the metal by the year 2030. A shortage could hit as soon as 2025.
A review by The Times of documents filed with regulatory authorities in China shows that the acquisitions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have followed a disciplined pattern.
According to a data analysis by The Times and Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, 15 of the 19 mines in the Democratic Republic of the Congo were owned or financed by Chinese companies last year. The largest alternative to Chinese operators is a Swiss company called Glencore.
The forested Kisanfu site was one of two major purchases in recent years by the fast-growing China Molybdenum.
Chinese companies have received at least $12 billion in loans and other financing from state-backed institutions. According to documents reviewed by The Times, the five biggest Chinese mining companies in the Democratic Republic of the Congo had lines of credit from state-backed banks that totaled $124 billion.
China wants to control the global supply chain from the ground up, no matter where the vehicles are made. Henry Ford invested in rubber plantations in the early 20th century as the auto industry turned to mass production.
The forested mine site at Kisanfu was one of two major purchases by China Molybdenum. The first came in 2016 when it took control of Tenke Fungurume, a mine that produces twice as much cobalt as any other country in the world. Financial records show that Chinese state-owned banks provided loans to the tune of over a billion dollars.
Donald J. Trump was campaigning in West Virginia with a hard hat and a shovel, promising coal miners that he was going to bring back the coal industry. Mr. Trump would roll back requirements on American automakers that were intended to accelerate the transition to electric vehicles.
Nicole Widdersheim worked on Africa issues for the National Security Council during the Trump administration. It was just so stupid.
The international cast of opportunists, luminaries and shadowy characters are eager to benefit from the frenzy for the precious metal. Hunter Biden helped found a Chinese-based private equity firm that was later scrutinized in the 2020 presidential campaign.
Makeshift depots are where rocks containing cobalt are assessed for their value.
According to documents obtained by The Times and interviews with current and former senior U.S. officials, Chinese companies are facing new challenges from the government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The American government is helping the Democratic Republic of the Congo with a broad review of past mining contracts as part of its broader anti-corruption effort. They are looking at whether companies are fulfilling their contractual obligations, including a 2008 commitment from China to deliver billions of dollars' worth of new roads, bridges, power plants and other infrastructure.
China Molybdenum, the company that bought the two Freeport-McMoRan properties, is being investigated by the president of the country for possibly cheating the government out of billions of dollars in royalty payments. The company is in danger of being kicked out of the country.
There have been problems at the Tenke Fungurume mine with people from nearby villages. After China Molybdenum called on the government to help, troops from the Democratic Republic of the Congo opened fire on a man inside the mine gates, killing him, and a second person who was shot after riots broke out in protest, witnesses and local officials told The Times.
At least a dozen employees or contractors at the mine told The Times that Chinese ownership had led to a decline in safety and an increase in injuries, many of which were not reported to management. Two safety officers said workers were offered bribes to cover up accidents after they raised concerns.
Alfred Kiloko Makeba, who retired last year after a decade working as a safety supervisor at the mine, said things are falling apart.
The spokesman for China Molybdenum questioned if there was an organized effort to undermine the company after rejecting claims that the company cheated the government or relaxed safety standards.
Mr. Zhou said in a written response to The Times that China has an expression that says, "Where there is a will to condemn, evidence will follow." I feel that we may be caught in the middle of a bigger game.
Joseph Kabila, the former president of the country, gave China access to the country's mines in exchange for infrastructure projects.
Analysts warn that the deals that African countries have with China for help building infrastructure with loans or trades involving their natural resources provide far more benefit to the Chinese.
The plan for those deals was sketched out in 2005 when Joseph Kabila walked into the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
After the assassination of his father, Mr. Kabila became the new president of the impoverished country.
Mr. Kabila received military training in China in the late 1990s. President Hu Jintao was going to help turn around the economy of the country.
The United States was involved in wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and had become less interested in the country. Many international banks and Western investors were scared away by the poor record of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Mr. Kabila wanted new roads, schools and hospitals as part of a revival plan that he hoped would endear him back home to a nation exhausted and dispirited by years of conflict and corruption.
He was prepared to give up his country's vast mineral wealth in exchange for it.
According to a former adviser to Mr. Kabila, the two presidents discussed a deal that would change the balance of power in Central Africa.
Mr. Hu said that many people in western China lived in deep poverty. He needed minerals and metals to build out new industries in the area. Mr. Kabila told him that he was ready to help.
A Chinese company worked on reconstructing a road next to a mine.
China had already acquired raw materials from the neighbor of the country, and it offered financial support in exchange for oil.
The potential deal with Mr. Kabila was more ambitious than any other, and a diplomatic drama would play out at the riverside Palais de la Nation in the capital of Kinshasa before it was sealed.
Mr. Kabila was inaugurated in 2006 after he won the presidency. The secretary of labor was part of the delegation sent by the Bush administration.
She presented Mr. Kabila with a Harley-Davidson trinket when she met him. Laura Genero, an associate deputy labor secretary who was on the trip, said that members of her delegation urged her to ask for a private meeting. She was surprised that Mr. Kabila agreed to a meeting the next day.
Ms. Genero gave Ms. Chao a beige pantsuit for the event. She had only packed one outfit.
The U.S. delegation listened as Mr. Kabila talked about wanting to expand access to electricity across the nation. The meeting was mostly small talk according to one of his aides.
The meeting between the new president and Chinese officials played out differently according to Mr. Kapanga, who was briefed on both the U.S. and Chinese discussions.
The Chinese used the opportunity to begin formal talks with Mr. Kabila that would result in a $6 billion agreement: China would pay for roads, hospitals, rail lines, schools and projects to expand electricity, all in exchange for access to 10 million tons of copper and more than 600,000 tons of
The local media called it the "the deal of the century", and while Mr. Kabila celebrated the agreement, the global financial community was worried that it was taking on too much debt.
The deal was viewed by American officials as historic. They noted in the cables that previous Chinese investment in the country had been disorganized and informal.
A cable from the U.S. embassy in Kinshasa said that there was a plan to link Orientale and Katanga provinces with over 2,000 miles of roadway.
The cable continued.
The Rumble in the Jungle boxing match between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman took place in Father Raphael Stadium, which Boxers are training outside.
Soccer stadiums rose from the dust, roads were expanded, and work began on water treatment facilities as China became visible in numerous infrastructure projects.
Not all of its progress in the market could be measured in bricks and mortar. The Chinese ambassador kicked off an American-style diplomatic campaign.
Mr. Wang threw out the jump ball at the Chinese corporate basketball tournament.
He gave out scholarships to students in the country to study in China, and he was on hand when a Chinese organization donated plane tickets for a choir to travel to his country. He offered $1 million for the relief of the disease.
Mr. Wang was involved in the roll out of his country's "Made in China" policy, which detailed China's plan to transform itself into a "manufacturing superpower" in 10 areas.
The capital flowed into Chinese companies in the very first moments. The deals were quickly followed.
The China Nonferrous Metal Mining Group said it would partner with the state mining company of the Democratic Republic of the Congo to develop a large copper and cobalt concession in the country.
The company with the slogan of "Harmony Begets Wealth" raised almost $700 million from a sale of private shares to develop its Kolwezi mine.
Electric cars of the future will be powered by the power of the cobalt from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In the capital of Kinshasa, residents rely on a system of rickety, fume-spewing minibuses.
The history and scale of the effort have not been previously reported, despite public statements about China's ambition.
The five biggest Chinese companies in the world have received at least $124 billion in credit lines for their global operations, according to corporate filings examined by The Times. All of the companies are owned by the Chinese government.
The Chinese government is always behind Chinese investors in Africa and in D.R.C., according to Mr. Kapanga, the former adviser to Mr. Kabila.
China Molybdenum, a company whose biggest shareholders are a government-owned company and a billionaire, made a $2.65 billion offer to buy Tenke Fungurume, an American-owned mine atop one of the biggest cobalt reserves in the world.
There was one problem. A Canadian partner of the company had the right to make the first offer to buy their stake. China Molybdenum had a private equity firm buy out their partner, but they needed money from the Chinese government.
Private investors did not contribute to the $1.14 billion raised to buy the partner's share. It came from Chinese state-controlled entities, including from bank loans guaranteed by China Molybdenum, as well as cash brought to the deal through obscure shell companies controlled by government-owned banks, according to the filings.
The official band of the state mining enterprise, Gcamines, practiced in front of a mountain of mining waste.
The board of the private equity firm, commonly known as BHR, was dominated by Chinese members, but also included three Americans, including a businessman who was convicted of fraud and a son of a murdered man.
Hunter Biden was the son of Vice President Biden.
It is not clear if Mr. Biden was involved in the deal. Mr. Biden didn't reply to questions. A former member of the BHR board who was not authorized to speak about internal business matters said that none of the Americans had played a role in the project and that the fees generated for the work had not been distributed to Mr. Biden. A spokesman for the president said he had not been made aware of his son's connection to the sale.
The chief executive of the company that negotiated the sale for Lundin Mining didn't know how the firm became involved.
Were they a partner, adviser or financier? Paul Conibear was Lundin's chief executive.
China celebrated its new ownership in May of last year. Chinese officials who helped finance the purchase were joined by a host of Chinese government-affiliated bankers looking to make more mining deals.
Card 1 of 6.
There was a tense era in U.S.-China relations. The two powers are at odds as they compete for influence and technology in other countries. The main fronts in U.S.-China relations are listed here.
Pacific dominance. The U.S. has sought to widen its alliances in the region as China has built up its military presence. Taiwan is a democratic island that the Communist Party considers to be Chinese territory. It could change the regional order if the U.S. intervenes there.
It is possible to trade. The trade war is on hold. The Biden administration has continued to protest China's economic policies and has imposed tariffs on Chinese goods.
Technology. There are still plenty of U.S. tech companies doing business in China despite internet giants being shut out. China needs to achieve technological self-reliance according to Mr. Xi.
They helped organize China Molybdenum's purchase of Kisanfu, the huge untapped cobalt reserve, from the same American mining giant. The sales marked a change of guard in the country as the United States abandoned its mining interests and now weighs on President Biden as he and his aides realize the extent of China's dominance in clean energy.
Mr. Wang said that the D.R.C. has a great investment potential. A Chinese proverb says to build a beautiful nest.
Tension and even deaths have been caused by the residents near Tenke Fungurume who steal cobalt.
At first, the changes at Tenke Fungurume seemed almost trivial, since the operation employs more than 7,000 and is located in a landscape the size of Los Angeles.
The new Chinese managers showed up in shorts and sneakers, a shock to the employees who had to wear safety gear.
Pierrot Kitobo Sambisaya, who worked as a metallurgist at the mine for a decade, said they were not able to do it.
Work anniversaries came and went with no recognition. Holiday parties where workers and their families were invited to tour the mine were no longer taking place. The jobs of janitors and driver were taken by the Chinese.
That was the beginning. Interviews with workers in communities surrounding the mine, current and former safety inspectors, and mining executives show that employees were concerned that the mine was becoming more dangerous.
Workers climbed into acid tanks to do repairs. Others drove bulldozers and other heavy equipment without proper training.
A worker was sitting in his truck last year while it was being towed. The worker tried to jump to safety, but the truck landed on him and he was crushed to death.
Alfred Kiloko Makeba, the veteran safety supervisor, and 10 other current and former employees, managers and contractors said that the company had an extreme departure from the American tradition of zero tolerance for risky activities and safety violations.
The community of Tenke has grown in size in recent years, and is located next to the huge Tenke Fungurume mine.
The company that built the mine had learned some hard lessons about its operations in Indonesia, where it faced international protest over dumping toxic mine waste into a river and violent conflicts over its operations.
The company had its own problems in the country as it moved to build Tenke Fungurume, which displaced more than 1,500 people. The mine gained a lot of respect for its commitment to worker safety, both among local officials and U.S. diplomats.
Safety officers at other mines in the country said that worker safety is an issue, but under the leadership of Freeport, employees who violated rules were immediately disciplined or fired. During the eight years that the mine was run, there was only one reported death among workers, according to records examined by The Times.
When China Molybdenum took over, safety inspectors were sometimes told to overlook violations or to accept bribes to do so, according to workers and supervisors. Violence sometimes followed when they tried to enforce the rules.
A safety officer said he was thrown to the ground by a worker he had called out for using welding equipment. The man broke his phone and camera.
The minority shareholder in the mine, Gcamines, an agency in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, said that employees had reported safety problems to the board. Safety issues are part of a broader review of China Molybdenum.
The China Molybdenum spokesman denied that any inspectors had been attacked. He suggested that the allegations were probably made up by fired employees.
He told The Times that the mine had a robust occupational health and safety framework in place. He said that the company's internal statistics show that worker injuries have declined since the company took over.
An accident between a truck hauling copper sheets and a tanker carrying acid on a highway leads to numerous industrial mines.
The employees who said they had been told not to report injuries believed the data was being fixed to cover up the rising hazard.
The Times was unable to independently confirm or deny the suggestion, but it was something Mr. Makeba had heard one evening last year. He said that a worker fell from a high perch after not wearing a safety harness.
Mr. Makeba was shocked to learn that the worker who broke his leg had been taken to a private clinic.
Mr. Makeba said that the employee told him that his supervisors paid him to keep quiet so that it wouldn't show up on the company's injury tally.
Mr. Makeba said that he was told to stop the matter.
Mr. Zhou said that any form of cover-up in disclosures is against rules and corporate values.
According to Mr. Makeba and another safety manager still working at the mine, labor conditions have become more important to automakers sensitive to consumer and shareholder demands. They said China Molybdenum has prevented them from reporting near deaths and ignored other injuries.
Mr. Makeba said that safety was on paper.
Motorcycles are loaded with bags of something.
Problems are not limited to employees inside the mine.
The people who carted off the bags of cobalt had a difficult time with the company. Some died when the tunnels collapsed.
The conflict became worse with China Molybdenum in charge.
One executive who worked at the mine told The Times that the company asked the government to send soldiers to help control the situation.
The military arrived and began patrolling the mines and bulldozing depots where people were selling their minerals.
The situation turned deadly when the troops remained for months. An employee at Tenke Fungurume told The Times that a soldier opened fire, killing an unauthorized digger.
The man's home village erupted in riots when friends arrived to carry his body. A protester was shot dead in the melee, according to three local officials and a mine employee.
They said China Molybdenum paid for the burials.
There were troops with AK-47s posted outside the mine this year, along with security guards hired from a company founded by the former Navy Seal.
The new managers at the mine were looking for ways to cut costs while increasing production, even as they were cracking down on theft.
China Molybdenum said it had saved more than 130 million dollars a year through its cost and efficiency programs. The company claims that it has brought Chinese efficiency and Chinese elements to the business.
China Molybdenum bought Kisanfu, a huge, unexplored reserve of cobalt from the American mining giant.
China Molybdenum is growing. It paid a half a billion dollars for Kisanfu, one of the world's largest undiscovered supplies of cobalt. China Molybdenum estimates that the ground underneath the site contains enough of the metal to power hundreds of millions of long-range electric cars.
In August, China Molybdenum announced plans to double production over the next two years. The mine will produce 40,000 tons a year when the expansion is complete. The United States produced 600 tons last year.
The rush to expand has drawn scrutiny from top government officials in the country, reaching all the way to the president.
Questions have arisen over payments Tenke Fungurume's operators may owe to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, dating back to when the American company controlled the mine. The owners are required to pay $12 for every additional ton if new deposits are confirmed.
China Molybdenum's spokesman called the accusations "unbelievable, wrong calculations" and said they provoked a bitter dispute between the mine managers and the officials.
Two mining executives involved in confidential discussions as well as a government official briefed on the talks say that Gcamines executives have discussed forcing out the management at Tenke Fungurume or taking the mine out of China Molybdenum's control.
The president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is looking at the operations of China Molybdenum.
Robert North, a New Mexico-based geologist who has helped prepare reserve estimates at the mine for Freeport and China Molybdenum, said both companies as well as Gécamines knew of large amounts of cobalt underground at the site. He said that China Molybdenum was cautious in declaring it until it knew it wanted to go to the expense of getting the deeper layers.
The president recently presided over a tense six-hour meeting with top company executives while his commission investigated the allegations.
The government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is examining mining contracts to see if they have been treated fairly. The Chinese funded infrastructure projects got off to a great start, but many have not been built.
During a visit to the cobalt-mining region this year, the president acknowledged that corrupt or incompetent government officials might deserve some blame for deals that have left the nation feeling shortchanged.
He said that some of their countrymen had negotiated poorly. I am very harsh on investors who come to enrich themselves alone. They come with empty pockets and leave as billionaires.
Chinese government officials say that the relationship is still going strong and that the benefits to the country are significant.
At a news conference in September, the spokesman for China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the countries have a longstanding friendship and that the bilateral practical cooperation has yielded fruitful win-win results.
In an interview with a newspaper in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mr. Tshisekedi said that he was focused on how his country could benefit from the clean energy revolution rather than who would dominate mining in the country.
He said that we have an amazing potential for renewable energy, be it through our strategic metals or through our rivers. We want to put this amazing resource at the disposal of the world, but we also want to make sure that it benefits the people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
In homes near the Kisanfu site, roofs are stiched together with bags from the mine that once contained sulfur, and residents store water in the mine's fuel drums.
Dionne Searcey was from Kisanfu, Michael Forsythe was from New York and Eric Lipton was from Washington. Bradsher was in Shanghai.
