Critical Minerals in Africa - Academic World Quest 2025

How many stateless people are there globally?

4-10 million (UN counts 4.3, 1/3 of which are kids)

When did the UN adopt the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?

1948

When did the Supreme Court make revoking citizenship illegal?

1958

What are the causes of statelessness?

1 - gender-based parentage laws (as of 2022, 25 countries have these laws)

2 - discrimnatory citizenship laws

3 - changing borders

4 - revoking citizenship (Iranian Kurd example)

1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons

established human rights for stateless persons

1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness

attempted to stop the causes (but on 78 countries joined the pact)

How many IDPs are there?

as of 2022, ~71 million (twice the number of refugees)

What country has the largest number of IDPs?

Syria (international law does not apply to IDPs)

When did the UN release their thirty Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement?

1998

R2P

Responsibility to protect; theory that outside powers may intervene to stop regimes from abusing their own citizens

DRC (pop ~100 million) found some peace in 2002, but

crimes continue in the east - USIP is intervening kind of

FEPA

Engaged Women for Peace in Africa

Pétronille Vaweka

DRC woman who won the 2023 Women Building Peace Award, part of FEPA

Strategy Toward Sub-Saharan Africa

US movement to "help" African countries develop economically (particularly for REEs)

How many foreign armed groups are fighting for territory in east DRC?

250 local and 14 armed

UN peacekeeping forces

are soon to withdraw, and conflicts are escalating

Goma

city in eastern DRC, pop. ~1 million

M23 rebel movement

violent crime group backed by Rwanda

How many people has DRC warfare impacted since the 90s?

6 million killed, 7 million uprooted

percent of the world's known cobalt in DRC

70%

How do minerals get smuggled out of the DRC?

mines in the east/south of DRC ->

cities in Burundi + Uganda ->

buyers in the United Arab Emirates

$ goes towards warfare

Uganda and Rwanda

took over mines to bring $ back to them

Bosco Ntaganda

DRC army commander later convicted of war crimes

Alain Goetz

Belgian gold entrepreneur sanctioned by the US to market Congolese minerals abroad

Dan Gertler

Israeli diamond billionare sanctioned by the US to market Congolese minerals abroad

When did DRC gain independence?

1960

How long was the Congolese cold-war related dictatorship?

32 years

Félix Tshisekedi

current DRC president part of first peaceful power transfer in 2019

What needs to be done to help stabilize the DRC?

1: permit an independent judiciary

2: prosecute corrupt officials

3: halt political repression

4: protect civilians living near warfare

What minerals on the US Energy and Interior Department's list of critical ones are mined in the DRC?

cobalt, copper, lithium, tantalum, tin, and titanium

Tom Sheehy

USIP Africa analyst ("real push" guy)

US needs to build $2.3 billion DRC railroad

to transport copper and cobalt to Lobito (Angola)

US

MUST INVEST $$$

vibe:

US must work to diversify processing because China has it all

China has what percentage of rare earth reserves?

36%

What percent does China control?

70%

What percentage of the processing?

90%

Deng Xiaoping

former general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party

vibe:

US is okay with child labor, illegal mining, and bad environmental practice IF we get cheap cobalt :(

Roger Zakheim

former senior Pentagon official (understood the threat China poses with all these minerals)

Mountain Pass, California

only rare earth mine in the US

Both US private industry and the Department of Defense

should stockpile three months of REEs in different states of process (weird but ok)

What percentage of chrome does South Africa lose annual to illegal mining?

10% (goes to China)

GI-TOC

Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime

Illegal chrome mines

first came to attention in 2016 but are big big now

Paul Miller

most boring guy ever OOPS OH WAIT he's a mining analyst

Unemployment rate in South Africa

over 30% (highest in the world)

zama zama

illegal miners in South Afraica (maybe tens of thousands)

South Africa mining policy

sucks so bad and is exploited all the time

Witrandjie

small village in Northwestern South Africa

Guadupe Mpodi

village headman of Witrandjie

vibe:

REE demand goes up up up, China controls all, little market diversification, US fails miserably