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The Democratic Republic of Congo is dealing with two crises at once. An Ebola outbreak that has infected 2,011 people and killed 754 is now derailing US efforts to secure access to the country’s vast mineral wealth.
The outbreak, declared in mid-May 2026, has prompted the US Embassy in Kinshasa to advise against all travel to the region as of July 11. Americans entering the country now face potential 21-day quarantines.
The minerals deal that isn’t happening
The US and DRC have been working toward a minerals partnership designed to weaken China’s stranglehold on critical mineral supply chains. The effort builds on a Critical Minerals Ministerial agreement from February 2026.
A Washington review meeting on US companies’ interests in Congolese projects was postponed from June. A follow-up scheduled for July has been canceled outright. Discussions have reportedly shifted to cities like London and Paris. No formal agreements have been reached.
The DRC is the world’s top cobalt producer and its second-largest copper supplier. It also holds significant deposits of germanium, lithium, and tantalum. Cobalt is essential for lithium-ion batteries. Copper wires the entire modern electrical grid. Germanium shows up in semiconductors. Tantalum lives inside the capacitors of virtually every electronic device on the planet.
Market implications and what to watch
Cobalt and copper prices are worth monitoring closely over the coming weeks. If the outbreak worsens or quarantine restrictions tighten further, expect supply concerns to push prices higher. That cost increase flows directly into hardware manufacturing, which flows into the price of mining equipment, which flows into the economics of proof-of-work mining.
If US-DRC negotiations remain stalled, China’s position in the region strengthens by default. That means continued dependence on Chinese-controlled supply chains for critical components.
The shift of talks to London and Paris suggests the diplomatic effort isn’t dead, just displaced. But negotiations conducted thousands of miles from the actual mining sites, without the ability to conduct on-the-ground project reviews, tend to move slowly.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
English (US) · 