Scramble for DRC critical minerals highlights the farce that is ‘Just Transition’

Cyril Zenda 

Source: Al Mayadeen English  

The DRC's offer of exclusive mineral rights to the U.S. is a desperate move to curb resource plundering, but ongoing exploitation, conflict, and human rights abuses persist, challenging the ethics of the global energy transition. 

Recently, the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) offered the United States exclusive rights to its critical minerals. On the surface of it, this looks like a straightforward business pitch. But it is not. If anything, this minerals-for-security deal is actually a last-ditch effort by President Felix Tshisekedi to secure his embattled country from marauding armed groups that have – for years – been plundering its DRC’s minerals resources to feed the growing demand in the US and the European markets.

While Tshisekedi is being criticized for making the offer, analysts say either way he is damned as the US and other global tech firms cannot be stopped from benefiting from the plunder of the country’s minerals. In the past few years, Kinshasa has tried to stop the plunder of its minerals by suing American tech giants such as Apple, Dell, Google, Tesla, and other global tech firms for including ‘bloody minerals’ in their supply chains, but this strategy has failed to stop the plunder of the country’s mineral resources.

A resource curse

The DRC is rich in tantalum, tin, tungsten, and gold – precious minerals often referred to as 3T or 3TG – which are critical in the production of smartphones and other electronic devices. It is also rich in copper, and cobalt, minerals essential for making lithium-ion batteries, which are necessary for powering a wide range of devices including electric cars and mobile phones. Also known as ‘digital minerals’ due to their use in high-end tech products, these minerals are essential for driving the global green transition, putting them at the forefront of geopolitical concerns.

As part of this scramble, in February last year, the EU signed a $900 million deal with Rwanda “to nurture sustainable and resilient value chains for critical raw materials.” Ironically, Rwanda exports more minerals than it does from its own mines. The DRC, the United Nations, and international human rights groups say the bulk of minerals exported by Rwanda are plundered from eastern DRC. Coincidentally, in the immediate aftermath of this EU-Rwanda minerals supply deal, fighting resumed in eastern DRC, peaking in February this year when the Rwanda-backed M-23 rebel group seized control of vast swathes of the area in this mineral-rich part of the country. Rights groups say over 8,500 people have been killed in this attack. Even the EU Parliament has voted for the suspension of the minerals deal until Rwanda stops supporting the M-23 rebels, but the EU is not keen to do so, putting its own interests ahead of the rights of the citizens of the DRC, and human rights in general.

‘Blood minerals’ allegations

Researchers and human rights groups say sexual violence, child labor, forced labor, armed attacks, and widespread corruption are some of the gross human rights violations that are common at sites in the DRC where these critical minerals for the global tech sector are extracted.

In the past, some human rights groups have sued Apple and several other global tech firms – Alphabet Inc. (the parent company of Google); Dell; Microsoft; and Tesla – accusing them of “knowingly benefiting from and aiding and abetting the cruel and brutal use of young children in the Democratic Republic of Congo to mine cobalt,” but a US court refused to hold them accountable.

In April last year, DRC’s lawyers served a formal cease and desist notice on Apple, accusing the US tech giant of relying on digital minerals plundered from the troubled vast central African country. The US and France-based lawyers accused Apple of sourcing its raw materials from a supply chain that includes resources smuggled from the DRC via neighboring Rwanda, where they are allegedly laundered and integrated into the global supply chain.

“Year after year Apple has sold technology made with minerals sourced from a region whose population is being devastated by grave human rights violations,” the lawyers wrote. DRC remains one of the poorest countries in the world.

The action coincided with the release of a report entitled “Blood Minerals – The Laundering of DRC’s 3T Minerals by Rwanda and Private Entities” by the lawyers.

“The world’s eyes are wide shut: Rwanda’s production of key 3T minerals is near zero, and yet big tech companies say their minerals are sourced in Rwanda,” the lawyers added.

They pointed out that global researchers have documented numerous schemes that underprop and facilitate an elaborate money laundering enterprise that involves illegal trade in conflict minerals sourced from Congolese territory.

“These observers have demonstrated the dependent nature of relationships between perpetrators of this looting and some of the biggest producers of consumer electronics, such as mobile telephones and computers, and companies in the automotive, aviation, and renewable energy sectors.”

Endless wars linked to minerals

DRC’s mineral-rich eastern region has been the center of a circle of endless violence since the regional Great Lakes wars in the 1990s, as more than 120 armed groups fight over national identity, ethnicity, and resources.

The DRC, the UN, some Western countries as well as some human rights groups accuse Rwanda of supporting some of these rebel groups, (including the M-23), in a bid to control the region’s mineral resources, charges that Kigali stridently denies. However, a 2022 Global Witness report concluded that 90% of the 3TG minerals exported by Rwanda originated from DRC. Several human rights researchers and lawyers have, over the years, compiled dossiers of evidence that corroborate allegations that the global top tech firms rely on ‘blood minerals’ from the DRC. The minerals are tainted by unethical extraction practices that include plunder, child labor, forced labor, and rape, among other evils.

In the case of the DRC, Lloyd Kuveya, assistant director at the Centre for Human Rights at the University of Pretoria in South Africa, says some Western countries are to blame for human rights violations that are common in the extractive sector.

“Some countries in the Global North are fuelling conflicts to extract critical minerals at low cost for the maximization of profit at the expense of the ordinary people,” Kuveya said. “Multinational corporations must not violate human rights and the environment as they pursue profit.”

What happened to Just Energy Transition?

This scramble for critical minerals by the US and the EU in the DRC and other African countries and the resultant abuses brings to the fore questions about the concept of ‘Just Energy Transition” that the same countries in the Global North have hyped over the years.

A just energy transition is all about moving away from fossil fuels in a way that reduces inequality, shifting the costs of climate action onto wealthy polluters while prioritizing economic, racial, and gender justice.

This concept, which is included in the 2015 Paris Agreement, emphasizes that this transition away from polluting energy and towards clean, renewable energy must be done in a way that’s fair for everyone. It frames this transition with a human rights lens, seeking to eliminate existing inequalities, enabling social inclusion, and promoting different forms of equity.

Davide Maneschi, the acting head of Unit (Natural Resources) at Swedwatch said a just transition is not only about decarbonizing the economy but also about providing access to modern energy services to everyone, respecting human and labor rights and not leaving behind the people affected by the transition (such as workers in legacy sectors).

“In addition, energy transition projects should not come at the expense of human rights, labor rights, and the right to a healthy environment. This is above all a matter of justice, but also a condition to implement successful energy transition projects.”

Maneschi said a just energy transition is highly unlikely to occur without rethinking the current global governance model and without reducing and redistributing consumption.

“In terms of global governance, there is a need to bring human rights, poverty reduction, and sustainable model of economic development at the center, as opposed to economic growth and profits.”

He said in terms of consumption, middle and high-income countries, and households, need to reduce their consumption levels to avoid an unsustainable burden on the earth’s resources and carrying capacity, while low-income countries, and households, need to increase their consumption to achieve well-being.