The Daily - The Global Race to Mine the Metal of the Future

Episode Date: March 18, 2022

In the high-stakes competition to dominate the business of clean energy, the Democratic Republic of Congo is a major arena: The country is the source of more than two-thirds of the world’s cobalt, a key component of electric-car batteries.In recent years, China has established a strong presence in Congo, while the United States has lost ground. We went to the African country to understand how that happened.Guest: Dionne Searcey, a correspondent for The New York Times.Have you lost a loved one during the pandemic? The Daily is working on a special episode memorializing those we have lost to the coronavirus. If you would like to share their name on the episode, please RECORD A VOICE MEMO and send it to us at [e-mail]. You can find more information and specific instructions here.Background reading: The United States failed to safeguard decades of diplomatic and financial investments in Congo, where the world’s largest supply of cobalt is now controlled by Chinese companies backed by Beijing.The power struggle over Congo’s cobalt has rattled the clean-energy revolution.Want more from The Daily? For one big idea on the news each week from our team, subscribe to our newsletter. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

From The New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily. Today, a high-stakes competition is underway to dominate the business of clean energy. My colleague, Dion Searcy, went to the Democratic Republic of Congo to understand how that competition is playing out between China and the United States over a single metal that could power the future of the automobile.

It's Friday, March 18th. Dionne, tell me about this trip that you recently took to the Democratic Republic of Congo. So I'm a former West and Central Africa bureau chief for the New York Times. And I also have reported there a lot on mining and on natural resources. And now I have joined the climate team. And so I took this trip to look at cobalt. And Dion, why cobalt of all things? Cobalt is going to be extremely important to the future. It's a key ingredient in batteries of electric vehicles. Cobalt is going to be extremely important to the future. It's a key ingredient in batteries of electric vehicles. Ladies and gentlemen, our takeover of General Motors is complete.

I don't know if you saw the Super Bowl, but if you noticed all the ads. We're going all electric. I mean, there were a zillion ads for electric vehicles. All electric. All electric. The BMW iX. Electricity in its ultimate form. The world is changing and all the auto manufacturers,

Ford, GM, everybody is looking at converting their entire fleets to electric vehicles. And Biden is making that a key part of his agenda. He's building charging stations across America. It's real. It's coming. And cobalt is a key component of the batteries because cobalt makes the battery go farther without needing a charge.

And the place to go for cobalt is the Democratic Republic of Congo. go for cobalt is the Democratic Republic of Congo. Congo has two-thirds of the world's entire supply of cobalt. It has more cobalt in its tailings piles, like the trash that mines throw out when they're digging for other minerals and metals, than most countries have in their entire landmass. And the cobalt you find there is a really, really high grade. It's pure and it's easy to get. And so I got on a plane and went to Kinshasa, the capital of Congo, to figure out who controls cobalt right now. Because whoever controls cobalt is going to have a key role in this new industrial revolution that's happening across the world.

And when I arrive in Kinshasa, it just feels like everywhere I look is cobalt. I check into my hotel, and the first thing I see is all these fancy people. They're like guys in pinstripe suits and women in tight dresses and stilettos clacking across the marble floor. The lobby has seven chandeliers and people are sipping $10 espressos and the breakfast bar has Swiss muesli and this Italian pastry chef guy imported from Italy. I'm looking around and the hotel concierge guy is handing out cigars. And they even at one point roll out the red carpet

because like literally because the president himself is arriving. And I turned to a guy standing next to me who's kind of looking at this thousand dollar Congolese modern art paintings that are lined up in the lobby and introduce myself. And I say, I'm from the New York Times. What are you doing here? And he says, oh, I'm here for cobalt. I mean, half the people in that hotel lobby were there for the very same thing. So you are very much in the right place. Exactly. So, you know, there are times in reporting when you get out into a situation and get

on the ground and you realize how absolutely wrong you are. Your whole hypothesis for a story is wrong. But this was a case where I didn't realize how right I was. I mean, there was an absolute cobalt rush going on here. I was in the center of it. But to really understand what was happening and get underneath all this, I needed to get out into the mining region. And what did you find there? Well, so I started in a mining hub city called Kowazi and then got in a car and just went up and down this highway that bisected all kinds of industrial mines.

Mines that were, you know, with big, huge equipment and earth-moving, you know, trucks and bulldozers and that kind of thing. But also mines that were just regular people out there digging in the dirt. people out there digging in the dirt. Because the ground in Congo is so bursting with cobalt that really what you need to dig for cobalt there is a shovel. Wow.

And so I went to one of these spots where there were several hundred guys out in flip-flops, sandals, some in bare feet. Hi, how are you? Who had just a pickaxe and a shovel and a little plastic headlamp.

It's very difficult. And they were out there in the dirt digging tunnels, you know, deep, deep, deep tunnels into the ground and emerging with giant, giant bags of cobalt. So what you're describing is basically freelance cobalt miners, regular people digging for the local equivalent of gold. That's exactly right. They would dig it and load up these bags on the back of bicycles or motorcycles

and drive it out down the highway to this row of basically tin shacks, like a mile long, where they would take it inside and pulverize it. Really, all you could hear is my ears were ringing from the sound of sledgehammers just smacking these rocks of cobalt against the concrete floor and pulverizing it and taking it and having someone determine the purity and the grade and setting a price and selling it and shipping it off. One of the diggers I met is George Punka. Come on. George Punka. One of the diggers I met is George Punga. And he was dressed in, you know, khakis that were covered in cobalt dust and tennis shoes. And he had been digging all day and he paused for a minute to talk to me. And told me that...

Do you come here every day? a minute to talk to me and told me that he had been digging for Congo's vast, vast array of minerals and metals, diamonds, gold, basically anything you can name. He'd been out digging. Chasing whatever was the mineral or metal of the moment since he was 11 years old is when he started. And he was 41 now. And now he had turned to the mineral, you know, that was in hot demand. Cobalt. to the mineral, you know, that was in hot demand, cobalt. I was in the city of Lubumbashi and we were driving around in the car and we passed a little alleyway and I looked at the end of the alley and there was a giant, giant mountain,

a black mountain. We said, turn the car this way. And as it turned out, it was a mountain of tailings, which is basically waste from a government mine. And in that pile of waste was cobalt. It was exhumed, I guess, before cobalt had the value that it had. But now they were going to start mining the waste pile. That's how valuable it was. And in front of this giant black mountain was a band. The national band of the state mining enterprise was practicing. And so it was this wild scene with tubas playing and dancers and everyone sort of out practicing and celebrating. And behind them, this backdrop of a mountain of, you know, what the future could bring to Congo. But like with any kind of rush on something valuable, there are winners and losers. And the miners I met, the people like Georges out there with his shovel and pickaxe,

they aren't reaping the benefits of this cobalt rush. Congo itself is barely reaping these benefits. What's happening is that cobalt has become this big competition between two great superpowers, China and the United States. So which of those two countries, Dionne, is best positioned to win that competition, China or the U.S.?

And let's start with the U.S. So America's interest in Congo dates back decades and decades. And even Albert Einstein was writing secret cables to the president trying to get America to pay attention and get access to what Congo had, to all the minerals and metals there, including uranium. And in fact, we used uranium that came from Congo when we dropped bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima. And so this dates back to World War II. And in the Cold War, the CIA launched missions to get into Congo, all aimed at keeping Russia out because Russia was also interested in what Congo had to offer with its natural resources. In Washington, a distinguished visitor from Africa is welcomed to the White House. In the 70s, Nixon invited Mobutu Seso Seko, the president of Congo, to Washington, D.C. He and his wife were greeted by President Nixon and his wife. Pat Nixon handed him a big bouquet of roses.

After laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery, President and Mrs. Mobutu were guests of honor at a White House dinner. And they flew Seiko to Disneyland. They flew him all over America to try to woo him. They ended up giving him one of those big, giant C-130 lumbering kind of cargo planes and filled one of them with Coca-Cola

because that's what he wanted and that's what he liked to try to schmooze him. We supported the military there. We supported electricity, bringing power lines and all kinds of things. We spent millions and millions of dollars. And then in the 80s, as the Cold War waned down, we changed our focus. Well, at this hour, Iraq remains in firm control of the tiny oil-rich country of Kuwait. And the U.S. really began to look away from Congo. And where did that attention turn instead? Much of the world is even more dependent upon imported oil and is even more vulnerable to Iraqi threats.

The U.S. became consumed specifically on oil and on gaining access to oil. So the countries that became important were in the Middle East. Indeed, the facts and Iraq's behavior show that Saddam Hussein and his regime are concealing their efforts to produce more weapons of mass destruction. During the Bush administration, of course, September 11th happened, and that was a major distraction for America's interests, and we turned our attention to wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Coalition forces have begun striking selected targets of military importance

to undermine Saddam Hussein's ability to wage war. Hmm. of military importance to undermine Saddam Hussein's ability to wage war. So during a period when the U.S. had a strategic reason to care about the Democratic Republic of Congo, it cares and invests, sounds like a lot, very much in its own interest. And then when those strategic reasons fade, the U.S. turns away. Its interest evaporates. U.S. turns away. Its interest evaporates. That's exactly right. And just as America is stepping away, China becomes very interested in the Democratic Republic of Congo. This is the early 2000s, and China is looking at developing the western part of its nation. And in order to do that, it needs resources. It needs minerals and metals to build all the things that it wants to build and to industrialize. So it turns to Congo.

And what does that turning to Congo look like? Well, it happened to coincide with a perfect moment in time for Congo's history. Joseph Kabila had just become president because his father had been assassinated, who was also a president. And he was interested in developing Congo, and he did not have the resources to do it. Congo needed really basic things like highways and roads and hospitals and schools and electricity. So he took a trip to Beijing and went to visit the president there and said to him, listen, you know, I need help building things. And the president said, okay, we need help developing our nation. Let's talk.

So in 2005, Congo and China struck up a deal. It was an infrastructure for minerals deal where China would come in and build the things that Congo needed and Congo would give China access to its copper and cobalt. And this became a familiar pattern. It was kind of a blueprint that China used when it struck deals in other countries, this sort of template that it used for a big strategy that it had called the Belt and Road Program. Mm-hmm. So in the same way that the U.S. had poured resources into the Democratic Republic of Congo in the 40s and the 50s and the 60s when it advanced American interests, China does the same now to advance its interests in the early 2000s. So basically, the two countries are kind of switching roles. Exactly. Exactly. So when the world wakes up to the potential of cobalt and, you know, in the past few years starts thinking about electric car batteries, China is in this really strong position.

And nothing encapsulates that more than the sale of two mining sites in southeastern Congo. We'll be right back. So Dion, tell us about these mines and what they tell us about who really gets to control cobalt going forward. So China is really slowly buying up a lot of cobalt mines. And I had mentioned before that the U.S. had left Congo, but really there was still one relic of U.S. involvement there. It was an American mining company that owned two giant mining sites. But in 2016, the company got into financial trouble and decided to sell one of these mines. It was a giant industrial mine the size of Los Angeles. Wow. It was a giant industrial mine the size of Los Angeles. It was massive. And the best and only offer came from a Chinese company called China Molly, which was backed by the state of

China. And again, a few years later, China was in a position to make the best offer when that company sold off its last remaining asset. It was cobalt that was still underground in the middle of the forest, one of the biggest cobalt reserves in the world. China Molly was there, stepped in, and bought that too. And so by the time China buys these mines, just how much of the cobalt market in Congo does China control? China controls the overwhelming majority of the cobalt market there. In fact, it controls 15 of the 19 existing industrial cobalt mines in Congo. And that very much seems in keeping with the relationship you just described between China and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

But I'm curious why the U.S. didn't do anything to try to wedge its way into this market, given everything you have just told us about how important cobalt is. Did the U.S. try at all to stop China from buying those mines or to get an American company to buy those mines? Well, there were people on the ground that were raising red flags. People in the State Department, Congolese mining officials were all desperate for America to stay in the country. But, you know, all these red flags, all these warning signs went unanswered in D.C. One of these sales took place in the last bit of the Trump administration when he was busy trying to get America to regain its interest in coal. So there

was just a massive disconnect in America between what was happening on the ground in Congo, and no one could get anyone in D.C. to pay attention. It's interesting, Dionne, what you described at the beginning of this conversation as a competition between China and the U.S. over cobalt in the Democratic Republic of Congo doesn't really seem like much of a competition at all anymore, right? By the end of 2020, it seems like China has won and the race is over. Well, it looks like that, but there are some interesting things happening. Biden came in and he has really stressed the importance of electric vehicles and made that a huge part of his agenda and is turning up at auto manufacturing plants when they open up new battery plants and is lining the highways with charging stations.

And he wants to try to get back in the game in Congo. And meanwhile, another interesting thing happening is in Congo itself, they're having a bit of, I guess you'd say, buyer's remorse about China. They are re-evaluating a lot of the contracts, those ones that were signed in 2005. They're thinking that maybe all the projects that were promised weren't built, and that some of the construction that happened is shoddy. And so they're looking into those contracts and, in fact, are even reevaluating the relationship with China Mali, the company that bought those two big American-owned mines. And so there are some really testy allegations flying right now. And the Congolese government is looking into things. And it could change the

relationship. And China, Molly, could even end up having to exit the country. Hmm. Which could, in theory, create an opening for President Biden and the United States to swoop in just as the country now realizes how far behind it has fallen. That's exactly right. It could lead to an American company striking up some kind of partnership and gaining access to the mine again. And when I was in Kinshasa, I met with President Felix Chesiketi, and he told me he would welcome more American investment. Dion, since you mentioned meeting with the president of Congo, I'm curious how the leaders of the country think about their own role in the future of cobalt.

We've been talking so much about the great powers and their competition over this resource, but it's the DRC's resource, not anybody else's. So has there been any kind of discussion of Congo becoming the middleman, the seller, in the same way that Saudi Arabia treats oil in their country? Well, it does, you know, officially control all the cobalt, but it can't really mine it and get it out of the ground and put it on the market on its own. It just, you know, the colonial legacy, the years of civil wars, the corrupt

presidents have left it, you know, really at the mercy of international partners. It really needs those. And it's trying to be more assertive. And the president, you know, told me it wants to be more assertive and gain control. But the best it can do for now is navigate these powers at play from abroad. And it's trying to do that right now. That's part of what Congo is getting into when it's looking at these contracts with China. It's asserting itself and trying to take control. So what are the stakes here? If the U.S. doesn't make its way back into the Democratic Republic of Congo, does not secure its desired share of the cobalt market, and if China ends up really controlling the world's access to this essential material, what happens? So the problem with just one country controlling the supply chain for electric batteries

is that they would have political leverage. If relations sour, then that country doesn't have to share. And it's really not that much of a stretch to imagine things going sour between the U.S. and China. Or there could be disruptions. Cobalt isn't used only just in electric vehicles. It's used in a lot of things we need for renewable energy, like wind turbines. And it's used in things like phones and computers. So when my colleagues Eric Lipton and Mike Forsyth and I talked to people in both the Obama and the Trump administrations about the U.S. losing access to cobalt in Congo,

they were horrified at what we'd given up. I mean, whoever controls cobalt and all these other metals and minerals is going to be a leader in the new global economy, which is really going to rely on renewable energy. They'll be able to set the terms for how the world meets the challenges of this century. Well, Dionne, thank you very much.

We appreciate it. Thank you. Since we spoke with Dionne, a court in Congo issued a major ruling against China Mali and forced it to give up control of one of its cobalt mines for at least six months in a dispute over missed payments and possible fraud. Meanwhile. And when it comes to clean energy, China has spent several years cornering the market on many of the materials that power the technologies that we rely on.

President Biden announced a series of major investments aimed at ensuring that the United States can secure access to materials like cobalt in the future. And this is not anti-China or anti-anything else. It's pro-American. We'll be right back. Here's what else you need to know today. An intelligence assessment from Britain has concluded that Russia's invasion of Ukraine has stalled and that Russian forces have made little progress

on land, sea, or air, even as they suffer heavy losses. The U.S. now estimates that in three weeks of fighting, 7,000 Russian soldiers have been killed, more than the number of American troops killed over 20 years in Iraq and Afghanistan. We have a strong sense of what Russia could do next. We believe that Moscow may be setting the stage to use a chemical weapon and then falsely blame Ukraine to justify escalating its attacks on the Ukrainian people. As Russia's frustration with the situation grows,

the U.S. Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, warned that Vladimir Putin may soon take extreme measures, such as deploying chemical weapons in Ukraine. Today's episode was produced by Michael Simon-Johnson with help from Eric Krupke and Caitlin Roberts. It was edited by Patricia Willans, Mark George, Paige Cowett and Anita Botticello, contains original music by Marian Lozano, and was engineered by Chris Wood.

Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Lansford of Wonderly. That's it for The Daily. I'm Michael Barbaro. See you on Monday.