Global financier and longtime Trump associate Gentry Beach is reportedly negotiating for control of the Rubaya coltan mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The Trump administration-backed initiative, accompanied by support from a consortium including the Swiss trading house Mercuria, shows the current preference for the US engagement with Africa through high-stakes investment deals rather than traditional diplomacy.
The US views these deals as a means to mitigate China's strategic dominance in Africa's mineral supply chains. "When the US stepped in, they wanted to frame their approach to a peace settlement differently than in the past," said one regional participant, quoted anonymously by the Financial Times. "They were looking at what the business and economic side of the deal would be that allows this region to prosper, so we don't get back into this all over."
