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The global race for critical minerals is increasingly becoming a race not only for access to resources, but for the partnerships, infrastructure and industrial capacity required to transform them.

A recent agreement between the U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) and Congolese mineral processing company Buenassa Resources S.A. offers a timely illustration of that shift.

On 23 September 2026, USTDA signed an agreement with Buenassa to fund a pre-feasibility study for a proposed copper and cobalt refinery in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Lualaba Province. The study will assess potential feedstock suppliers, develop the refinery’s technical design and define the economic and financial parameters required for its development.

According to the DRC’s embassy in the United States, the grant is valued at up to US$3.385 million. While modest compared with the capital ultimately required to construct the refinery, the significance lies in what the funding is designed to unlock: the technical work necessary to move an African-led mineral processing project closer to bankability.

The agreement offers a clear example of the Mining Indaba 2027 theme, “Stronger Together: Partnership in Practice,” showing how African industrial ambition, government support, international expertise and investment can come together to advance more integrated and higher-value critical mineral supply chains.

A resource advantage seeking an industrial advantage

The DRC's importance to global mineral supply chains is difficult to overstate. In 2025 the country accounted for approximately 73% of global mined cobalt production in 2025, with Indonesia a distant second at around 14%. Global cobalt demand reached 276,000 tonnes during the year, driven predominantly by battery applications, while demand from defence and aerospace applications also increased.

The DRC is equally significant in copper. U.S. Geological Survey estimates indicate that the country produced approximately 3.2 Mt of mined copper in 2025, second only to Chile's estimated 5.3 Mt.

Yet the strategic question confronting the DRC and many mineral-rich African economies is no longer simply how much mineral can be extracted. It is how much economic value can be retained from mine to market.

Buenassa's proposed refinery speaks directly to that ambition. The Congolese-led project is intended to process domestically sourced copper and cobalt into higher-value products rather than relying solely on the export of less-processed material.

Under Buenassa's current plans, the first phase of the refinery has an indicative capital requirement of approximately US$700 million and is designed to produce around 30,000 tonnes of LME-grade copper cathode and 5,000 tonnes of cobalt products annually. A second phase, currently estimated at approximately US$1.3 billion, would scale capacity to around 120,000 tonnes of copper and 20,000 tonnes of cobalt annually. Buenassa stresses that these figures remain preliminary and subject to technical and feasibility work.

That distinction matters. The USTDA agreement does not mean the refinery is fully financed or ready to break ground. What it does is help move the project through one of the most important stages of development: establishing whether the technical and commercial foundations are strong enough to attract larger-scale investment. In that sense, the significance of the agreement goes beyond its headline value. Turning Africa’s mineral wealth into industrial capacity starts with exactly this kind of work transforming ambition and geological potential into credible, bankable projects.

Policy is reshaping the value chain

The project is also emerging against a changing Congolese policy environment. In February 2025, the DRC temporarily suspended cobalt exports amid concerns over oversupply and depressed prices. The suspension was subsequently extended before being replaced, from 16 October 2025, by an export quota system.

For 2026, the system permits exports of up to 96,600 tonnes of cobalt, comprising a base quota of 87,000 tonnes and a further strategic quota of 9,600 tonnes administered by the regulator ARECOMS. The same headline volumes were initially envisaged for 2027, subject to adjustment.

The policy should not be interpreted simply as a ban on the export of raw ore. It is a broader intervention in the cobalt market intended to manage export volumes and give the Congolese state greater influence over how one of its most strategically important resources enters global supply chains.

Restricting supply alone does not create industrialisation. Refineries require reliable feedstock, competitive power, water, logistics, technology, skilled labour, financing and customers.

Lobito: from transport corridor to industrial corridor

The location of the Buenassa project also connects it to one of Africa's most closely watched infrastructure initiatives: the Lobito Corridor.

The corridor links the mineral-rich regions of the DRC and Zambia to Angola's Atlantic coast through the Port of Lobito. Its importance is increasingly being understood not simply in terms of moving minerals faster, but in terms of the economic activity that could develop around the transport backbone.

Just one day before announcing its agreement with Buenassa, USTDA announced support for a feasibility study aimed at expanding hydropower generation and upgrading electricity distribution in Lualaba Province and north-western Zambia. The agency said the project could improve power reliability for mining operations as well as communities across the corridor.

Taken together, these initiatives point to a more ambitious possibility.

What if Lobito evolves from a corridor that moves minerals into a corridor that helps manufacture, process and trade higher-value mineral products?

That would fundamentally change the development proposition. Railways can shorten the journey from mine to port. But industrialisation requires something more: reliable energy, processing facilities, competitive finance, cross-border infrastructure and long-term offtake relationships functioning as part of the same ecosystem.

Buenassa therefore represents one piece of a much larger puzzle.

The partnership challenge

The refinery project already reflects multiple layers of partnership. The DRC government has previously provided Buenassa with US$3.5 million through the Fonds de Promotion de l'Industrie to support project preparation, and in 2025 the Congolese state acquired a 10% stake in Buenassa Resources.

Buenassa has also said it is strengthening engagement with U.S. institutions including the DFC. Public reporting indicates discussions have taken place regarding possible DFC technical assistance for the project's future definitive feasibility work, although no DFC agreement on that support has yet been publicly announced.

This distinction between interest, project preparation and final investment is central to the wider African critical-minerals conversation.

Governments increasingly want beneficiation. Investors increasingly want diversified and resilient supply chains. Industrial economies want secure access to copper, cobalt and other strategic materials. The interests can align but alignment alone does not deliver projects. Projects move when each partner answers a different part of the equation, this is Partnerships in Practice. Not partnership as a declaration of intent, but partnership organised around delivery.

Africa possesses extraordinary mineral resources. That fact is well established. The next chapter will be determined by whether countries can translate geological advantage into competitive industrial advantage.

For the DRC, that means building an ecosystem in which copper and cobalt extraction can support refining, infrastructure, skills, services and ultimately broader industrial activity.

And for projects such as Buenassa, the challenge is now execution.