By Fortune Madondo

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and billionaires backed US-based AI mining company KoBold Metals have been at odds with Belgium and Belgian Museum over who gets to access, control and digitize millions of colonial-era geological archives about Congo rich subsoil. Sadly, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) remains one of the fifteen (15) least-developed countries across the globe.

This is in spite of the fact that DRC is sitting on some of the richest land on the planet having minerals (tapped & untapped), notably in copper, cobalt, coltan, lithium etc. This richness is even being proved to this very day by colonial mining archives lying in a museum somewhere in Belgium.

These minerals archives are at the centre of a tussle and tug of war between the Belgian government vs. the DRC government. AfricaMuseum vs KoBold Metals. Belgium vs KoBold Metals. Amidst all this drama, a fundamental question is raised, does DRC (Africa) enjoy resource sovereignty, does DRC (Africa) have control over not only its mineral wealth but data and knowledge over its mineral wealth?

The Story

In line with the European Union (EU)and Belgian law, within the next four to five years around 2031), the archives are to be digitized and made available to the public. But the question now is who has rights over the archives? who should be in charge or control the digitisation process?

It is said that in 2025, KoBold Metals a US AI company backed by Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos offered to handle the archive’s digitisation but the Belgian government through its AfricaMuseum objected. The Belgian position was and is that they could not give exclusive access to millions of documents about DRC’s geology to an overseas private company.

Instead, AfricaMuseum hopes to secure funding from the European Union (EU) to appoint a contractor for the digitisation project. DRC is also pushing to have the archives handed to Kinshasa. KoBold Metals has promised Kinshasa to aid in the digitization of the archives.

The Actors

AfricaMuseum.. a Belgian Museum

The AfricaMuseum in Tervuren (just outside the Brussels), formerly called the Royal museum for Central Africa, is an institution housing coveted archives, teeming documents charting the rich subsoil of the DRC. Millions of handwritten, fragile, and not yet fully inventoried documents lie on an estimated 500 meters of shelving at the AfricaMuseum. These materials document the mineral wealth of the DRC, how they were mapped & exploited during the colonial era.

Belgian Government

Belgium and the AfricaMuseum physically have colonial-era geological archives in their possession and continue to retain sovereignty over the archives estimated to a tune of US$24 trillion. Supported by European Union (EU) funding, AfricaMuseum is in the process of executing a public digitization plan expected to take up to five years, gradually handing digital copies directly to Congolese authorities.

DRC Government

DRC through Mines Minister Louis Watum Kabamba, is pushing to reclaim the archives in order to assert its “resource sovereignty”. DRC wants to identify untapped deposits of critical minerals and possibly utilize them for leverage in their foreign policy against foreign powers.

Kobold Metals – US Private Company

The United States of America (US) Mining company, KoBold Metals backed by US tech billionaires like Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, struck a deal with Kinshasa to digitize these mining records. They were denied exclusive access to the physical archives by the Belgian AfricaMuseum, which cited that public scientific collections cannot be delegated to a single private entity.

DRC Government & KoBold Metals

On the 17th of July, 2025, DRC authorities and KoBold Metals signed a deal to digitize the archives and make them free via DRC’s National Geological Service. KoBold, US billionaires backed, wants the data to map lithium, cobalt, copper etc.

In 2025, KoBold Metals amid deepening the strategic alliance between Washington DC and Kinshasa administration, received authorization to search for lithium and other minerals in DRC. Interestingly, Kobold Metals concluded agreements with Kinshasa on digitization of mining data, including records preserved in Belgium.

It is said that, DRC Mining Minister, Louis Watum Kabamba expressed desire for acceleration and transfer of Belgian data to Kinshasa. However, some have accused Kabamba of “giving away” DRC’s mining potential to the US, an allegation Kabamba vehemently denies.

Background

 “Starting in the 1960s and afterwards, private Belgian companies went bankrupt, ceased their operations in Congo, and deposited archives here,” said museum director, Bart Ouvry.

Francois Kervyn, the museum geologist leading the project commenting on these archives said, “the content of the documents is absolutely incredible”, describing decades of fieldwork carried out in largely unmapped regions of DRC.

In Ourvry’s view, the DRC authority does not have direct authority over the archives,

“The archives are Belgian archives. They deal with the Congo, but also with other countries such as Rwanda, Burundi, neighbouring countries where Belgian companies have long been active”.

Adding that,

“Therefore, it is not up to the Congolese government or a private company to decide about these archives.Of course, we recognize that it is… important from a moral & political perspective to share these archives with the Congolese government…..But we must accomplish that ourselves”.

Further stating that,

“These are important from a scientific point of view, but also from an economic one. And so for some time now, there has been a great deal of interest in them, not only from scientists, but also from the private sector”.

The Context: Global Race for Critical Green Metals

For authorities in Kinshasa, such mining historical data is crucial for the identification of new deposits and this can in turn lure investment as the competition and race for critical rare metals hits u due to demand increase in the raw materials utilized in weapons, mobile phones, and electric cars.

The race to digitize the files has turned into a highly competitive geopolitical and corporate battle for critical mineral intelligence in the green energy era. While the museum manages the bulk of the records, the DRC has also separately partnered with the US billionaires backed US KoBold Metals to digitize existing local archives directly within DRC.

The Question of Resource Sovereignty & Control Over Data About Its Resources

Amidst all this drama, one question is raised. Who has rights to the archives? The Belgian government? The private US company KoBold Metals which can buy the rights? or the DRC government? Who has and should have rights over these archives?

The maps were made from Congolese soil, by Congolese labor, during colonization. But they sit in Belgium, not in Africa, under Belgian control not African control. Belgium did the original theft. But now Belgium wants to control the speed and terms of return.

A case of former colonial masters determining the pace and rate of Africa’s freedom. The 2022 Belgian law even excludes archives from restitution. Oversight or strategy. History points to the latter, strategy. So physical resources are left, and now the data about them is also kept away from Africa.

Africa must have immediate full control. A 2031 timeline serves Belgian/EU interests, not DRC’s development now. KoBold Metals wants the archive because critical minerals, AI, batteries, energy transition. This is not resource sovereignty. It is not just minerals in the ground they want.

They want data, information about where those critical metals are, ahead of Congolese (Africans) owners of such resources.

KoBold’s deal with DRC sounds good, free public access.But critics ask, who benefits first? Its foreign KoBold Metals not Congo. In the early years of King Leopold’ s imperial colonial Congo, horrors were perpetuated under the guise of civilizing Congo, doing something good for Congo.

Today on one hand, Belgium & AfricaMuseum won’t release the archives for “ethical & legal constraints” a language, sounding like doing something good for Congo, but is it so? On the other hand, KoBold Metals talks of free public access, sounding good but even King Leopold II’s civilizing mission of Congo sounded good but history has never forgotten the horrors of King Leopold’ II’s brutal imperial rule.

Africa ought to demand immediate repatriation of digital copies.DRC owns everything about Congo. DRC should avoid signing exclusive deals with foreign companies like KoBold Metals. KoBold Metals should not get monopoly access, so is Belgium.

The archives must be public for all African researchers, universities, and DRC companies first. Africa should use such kind of data to industrialisation targets as spelt out in Africa’s agenda 2063. Do not export African data, instead, use it to build African (DRC) geological expertise, local processing, and value-added industry.

Conclusion

500 metres of colonial-era geological maps, field notes, reports from Belgian mining companies in Congo held at AfricaMuseum in Tervuren, Belgium.These colonial archives should be a part of restitution, not to exclude them. Belgium returning is not a “gift” from Brussels.

It is about returning stolen knowledge. EU funding digitization should not mean EU control. DRC should not give exclusive mining rights to private companies. The question is not “KoBold Metals vs Belgium”.

The question is, Does DRC control its geological memory, or do former colonizers and new superpowers still decide?

F. Madondo (African Teacher) fortmada123@gmail.com