US-China rivalry for DRC minerals escalates as Chinese-allied workers decry interference

The intensified rivalry has been laid bare through counter accusations by mining workers, with Chinese-allied workers in Ituri accusing US-linked mining company of sabotage and undermining their operations.

In a statement seen by the Star, the Ituri workers accused “American companies … of destabilising Chinese firms” and urged the government to act.

The statement — translated from French — said they have been invited by officials of the US-affiliated mining company to protest against their Chinese employers under the pretext of non-payment of their wages and inhumane working conditions.

“We, workers engaged in most of Chinese companies based in Mambasa, Ituri province, following the manipulative decisions of some officials of the mining company in Mambasa who call us every day to a mass uprising against the Chinese companies for which we are workers, find that this could pose us to huge risks and inexorably lead us towards a crisis and loss of jobs,” the statement said.

The workers identified in the statement as Boslo Alime Jean-Le Bandar-lue, Kakule Shibula Arsène, Vital Mahigwe Glory, Paul Kambale Crown and Accent Prayer Alain alleged that representatives of the American-linked company have been pushing them to cause unrest under the pretext of forced labor, poor working conditions and receiving peanuts.

“We demand that this company and these officials take notice and stop contacting us and interfering with the professional management structures within our work,” they said.

In a further indication to the implication on security this rivalry is causing, the workers made accusations of close collaboration with armed bandits in Mambasa “with the effect of destabilising the economic fabric and compromising our work system in our respective workplaces”.

“We thank in return, the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo for having expelled one of the managers of this company which formerly dealt with these bandits,” they said.

They claimed a Chinese company was recently a victim of an attack in its territory, and several Chinese assets were stolen, and a Chinese man was killed along with a police officer who was guarding it.

The American-allied company is a joint venture involving a Canadian-company and the Congolese government, and is one of the largest gold operations in Africa.

The company has reportedly faced criticism over violations of labour subcontracting laws, labour, conditions, evictions, environmental damage, and opaque deals with security actors in a region long-plagued by armed conflict.

Chinese firms, too, have faced scrutiny over the same issues, particularly condition of workers.

The accusations come at a time the two countries are involved in cutthroat competition for minerals, a key component in technology advancement and Electric Vehicles manufacturing.

DRC, which is heavily rich in minerals, is at the heart of the global clean energy transition.

Her mineral wealth is indispensable to industries reliant on lithium-ion batteries as accounts for roughly 70 per cent of global cobalt production.

DRC is also a major copper producer, producing approximately over 1.8 million tonnes — about 10 per cent of the global output. It also hosts other critical metals and rare earth minerals essential for renewable energy technologies..