U.S. Institute of Peace experts discuss the latest foreign policy issues from around the world in On Peace, a brief weekly collaboration with SiriusXM's POTUS Channel 124.

Transcript

Laura Coates: Let's turn our attention now to Tom Sheehy, a distinguished fellow in the United States Institute of Peace's Africa Center. He examines the role of China and Africa and supports the work to strengthen the Sudd Institute, a research organization in South Sudan that promotes national reconciliation. He joins us now, Tom, welcome. How are you?

Tom Sheehy: I'm great, Laura, thank you.

Laura Coates: There's a lot to consider right now, there are a number of issues, particularly as it relates to critical minerals in Africa and the U.S. infrastructure project in the Lobito Corridor that spans, I believe, Zambia, Angola, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Tell me a little bit about this, these infrastructure projects that are happening right now.

Tom Sheehy: Sure, over the last couple of years has been growing attention here in Washington, towards African critical minerals. This is a result of the energy transition and the need for or the projections of massively growing demand for critical minerals. And Africa is one place that has critical minerals. And so, there's been a real push by the Biden administration, to look at Africa and see what can be done to assist U.S. and other Western mining companies to get involved in these mining sectors. Traditionally, U.S. companies have not operated in the African mining sector. And so there is an effort to really encourage them to do so. And the biggest detriment to mining in Africa is a lack of infrastructure, power and rail. And so, that's why there's the attention on this Lobito project.

Laura Coates: What are you defining as critical minerals, so we are on the same page?

Tom Sheehy: Sure. Well, there's an official list of 50 minerals that the U.S. government designates, these are minerals, you've heard of many of them copper, graphite, lithium, nickel, they're essential to our economy. Particularly, they go into consumer electronics, they are also very important to our defense industrial base. And so, these have been identified. Now this list evolves. And what's important today, for your iPhone may not be important in five years, 10 years. And so, the market is very dynamic, but the government makes an attempt to identify what does our economy and our national security depend on. And increasingly, we're looking towards Africa to satisfy some of this demand.

Laura Coates: In terms of national security, in particular bridge, that gap for people who might not realize between these critical minerals and these infrastructure projects and the impact on the United States and national security.

Tom Sheehy: Sure, well, national security is a pretty broad term. And there's all elements of national security, and certainly all our technologies, our electronics, which are so essential to our defense, many of those inputs are sourced in Africa, some of these inputs actually go directly to what you might more commonly associated with our defense industrial base. Into airplane air, jet fighter airframes, and in weaponry and so forth. So, it's the full range in the modern economy, nothing works, without these critical minerals. And, particularly during COVID, you saw real concerns about our dependence on China. Over the last 20-30 years, China has really established a dominant position in many of these critical minerals. And so, Africa is seen as a continent, as a place where we can start very slowly to move away from our over dependence on China for critical minerals.

Laura Coates: So, tell me about this Lobito Corridor in particular, I know it spans Zambia, Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, as well. But a U.S. infrastructure project in this corridor is pretty significant.

Tom Sheehy: It's very significant. And so, traditionally, the U.S. has not been big on building infrastructure in Africa, we have many aid programs in Africa, but they've been mainly focused on improving education and health, and so forth. And infrastructure is just not something the U.S. has done. Now, China has done infrastructure and you've heard of the Belt and Road Initiative, which has been at work for 20 years, and that's all about building port and rail. And so, two of the most critically, most rich countries and in terms of critical minerals are the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia, and they're right in the middle of the African continent. And so, it's a real challenge to move cobalt and copper to export markets, it requires shipping them hundreds of miles to seaports. And so, right now those links are just very poorly developed, they rely on trucks and very unreliable roads. And so, this is an effort to build a rail infrastructure that would ship the critical minerals directly to a port called the Lobito on the Angolan coast of the Atlantic. And so, it's a big, big endeavor and the U.S. doesn't typically do this. And so, it's a project that's going to take a lot of time, energy and resources.

Laura Coates: And the resources in particular, where's the funding apparatus?

Tom Sheehy: Well, it's a private-public partnership. And so, the U.S. government through something called the Development Finance Corporation, is taking a position, lending for some of this project. But it's also mainly to devise, to attract foreign investment. And so, they're private investors, partners, folks involved in the critical minerals industry who are investing in this in the hopes that can be a viable railway and be economically viable to ship these critical minerals abroad and export them. And so, it's, it's a bit of a risk. It's a new adventure. But I think it's worth the effort just given the importance of critical minerals to U.S. national security.

Laura Coates: Where does Europe come into this? Are they also as interested and invested as the United States in investing in Africa's mining sector,

Tom Sheehy: Absolutely Laura, and you're seeing greater partnerships between the U.S. and European countries. And so, Lobito Corridor involves a Portuguese company. There are other multinational development banks involved in this effort. And so, the U.S. realizes that we need to partner. And so, there's also something called the Mineral Security Partnerships, which brings together 20 countries who are concerned about diversifying their supply chains. And it involves Canada and the European countries and Australia, who have common values want to see mining done. But also want to see it done in a way that that benefits African countries, because if African countries don't benefit from this, it's not going to work. And they actually bring about conflict and other very negative developments.

Laura Coates: This is really interesting to think about this. It's not often talked about. I'm glad you stopped by the show to give us all what we need to know, thank you so much. I appreciate it, I know it's very nuanced.

Tom Sheehy: You're welcome, Laura.