At first glance, this is neither an open-pit mine nor an exploitation contract rushed through under pressure. The heart of the controversy lies elsewhere: in linear kilometers of colonial archives preserved in Belgium, laden with geological memory that—according to several corroborating sources—could weigh heavily on the mining future of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
At the Africa Museum in Tervuren, nearly half a kilometer of shelving houses millions of documents from the era of the Belgian Congo: geological maps, mission reports, field notebooks, mining surveys, and technical notes produced by Belgian companies active in the Congo during the twentieth century. These collections sometimes describe, with remarkable precision, exploration trajectories and prospecting zones located in regions now at the heart of global competition—particularly around copper, cobalt, coltan, and lithium.
According to information made public on 21 February 2026, a U.S. mining company, Cobalt Metals, seeks access to these archives in order to digitize them and analyze them using artificial intelligence tools. The stated objective is to exploit these historical data to refine the mapping of strategic deposits in Central Africa. The company would benefit, according to several converging revelations, from the financial and technological backing of Bill Gates, a central figure in the global ecosystem of advanced technologies applied to the extractive sector, as well as Jeff Bezos.
Although presented as a technical initiative, the move raises a cluster of diplomatic and political questions. Belgian authorities recall that two years ago they launched a large public program to digitize these archives, supported by funding from the European Union, as part of support to the mining sector. This program aims to preserve, classify, and make the documents accessible within a scientific and non-exclusive framework, for the benefit of researchers, Congolese authorities, and, where appropriate, private actors. However, the scale of the undertaking is considered considerable and is expected to extend for another four to five years.
In the meantime, the stated intention of a private company to intervene directly in the digitization process has sparked strong reluctance in Brussels. The management of the Africa Museum, supported by Belgian federal authorities, opposes any full delegation of the process to a private actor. “We cannot delegate the complete management of the archiving of our documents to a private company,” its director said, considering that such a scenario would create a commercial advantage incompatible with the institution’s public service mission. Belgian authorities also point to the absence of a direct contractual link with the American company and stress that these archives must remain accessible within a public, scientific, and equitable framework.
It is precisely on this ground that the controversy becomes more sensitive. According to several sources in the mining sector, a memorandum of understanding has been signed in Kinshasa between the Congolese Minister of Mines, Kizito Pakabomba, and the managing director of KoBold Metals in the DRC, Benjamin Katabuka. This agreement reportedly provides, among other things, for the deployment of a company team within the archives preserved in Belgium before 31 July 2025. In addition, the company is said to have obtained, at the end of August, seven mining exploration permits covering more than 1,600 square kilometers on Congolese territory.
Taken individually, these elements fall within the routine management of the extractive sector. Viewed against the backdrop of the current race for access to colonial geological archives, however, they raise questions about the sequence, the timetable, and the real level of strategic control exercised by the Congolese state over data capable of shaping, upstream, the exploitation of critical resources. In the world of strategic minerals, analysts recall, a few months’ head start in access to information can translate into billions of dollars and a lasting repositioning of power relations.
Beyond the Belgian-American dispute, the affair fits into a broader geopolitical game. The Democratic Republic of the Congo is seeking to attract foreign investment to secure and modernize its mining sector. The United States aims to reduce its dependence on China for supplies of critical metals. Europe, for its part, appears determined to retain oversight of a heritage inherited from its colonial past. According to some analyses, this convergence of divergent interests sketches the contours of a new competition for Africa—less visible, but no less decisive.
In this silent battle, control no longer passes solely through mining concessions or physical borders, but through servers, databases, and algorithms. Every document scanned, every map interpreted by artificial intelligence, can become a lever of economic and political power. “There is no map that says, ‘dig here and you will find lithium,’” sector specialists remind us. But aggregating thousands of historical data points can steer contemporary exploration strategies with formidable effectiveness. This case thus acts as a revealing lens on a more troubling continuity. Long relegated to the status of relics of the past, colonial archives are today turning into instruments of power. According to several observers, domination does not disappear; it is reconfigured—becoming contractual, digital, algorithmic. The central question therefore remains unresolved: does the DRC truly control the terms of the agreements concluded around its informational heritage? Or are we witnessing a more subtle redefinition of relations of dependence, under the guise of technological cooperation?
In the national anthem and in the Congolese Constitution alike, sovereignty over the riches of the soil and subsoil is presented as a non-negotiable pillar. Yet as the battlefield shifts toward data and geological memory, this sovereignty is now also played out in contractual clauses, technical choices, and digitization timelines. As several sources have noted, the defense of national interests no longer rests solely on political discourse, but on the capacity to control strategic information. At this stage, no mine has yet been opened and no mineral has left Congolese soil. But the archives of Tervuren have already become the stake in a discreet confrontation between Kinshasa, Brussels, and Washington—a confrontation that calls for lexical caution, but whose implications could, in the long term, profoundly redraw the balance of mining power in Central Africa.
By Kilalopress