Special forces veterans lead US bid to buy Congo cobalt miner

A US consortium involving ex-special forces personnel is seeking to acquire Chemaf Resources Ltd., a copper and cobalt producer that has become a symbol of the growing competition for mineral deals between the US and China in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Orion Resource Partners and Virtus Minerals are jointly negotiating the purchase of Chemaf, according to people familiar with the matter. While the US firms are in pole position to acquire Trafigura Group-backed Chemaf, the parties haven’t entered into an exclusivity agreement as aspects of the deal are yet to be finalized, one of the people said, asking not to be identified as the talks are private.

The discussions are taking place with President Donald Trump’s administration seeking greater involvement for American mining companies in Congo, the world’s second-biggest copper producer and largest source of cobalt. The central African nation has become an important part of US plans to loosen China’s grip over critical minerals supply chains.

Spokespeople for Virtus and Orion declined to comment. Chemaf couldn’t be reached for comment.

Chemaf — owned by businessman Shiraz Virji and struggling to fund its flagship project — put itself up for sale nearly two years ago, and in June 2024 announced a deal with a unit of Chinese state-owned arms manufacturer Norinco Group. That agreement would have seen Chemaf’s creditors, including Trafigura, repaid in full.

That transaction was abandoned in March, however, because Congo withheld the necessary approvals. State miner Gecamines – which owns the key permit that Chemaf leases for its flagship Mutoshi project – had objected to the deal from the outset, while US officials also urged President Felix Tshisekedi’s administration to prevent the transfer to the Chinese firm.

It’s unclear whether Gecamines, which submitted its own offer for Chemaf’s assets in October, would be more favorable to Orion and Virtus taking over the Mutoshi lease by acquiring Chemaf. The state miner didn’t respond to a request for comment.

New York-headquartered Orion is a major financier to the mining industry, with about $8 billion in assets under management and a business spanning private equity, venture capital and commodity trading.

Virtus has a subsidiary in Congo called ROK Metals, which produces small volumes of copper and cobalt from a processing plant it bought in 2023. The company is led by veterans of the US military and intelligence services with expertise in critical mineral supply chains, according to its website.

The firm’s president, Gregory Roberts, worked for the Central Intelligence Agency, including in Africa, and on the House of Representatives’ Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Virtus Managing Director Phil Braun has two decades of military experience and currently serves as a Green Beret with the 20th Special Forces Group in the National Guard.

If the acquisition is finalized, Orion will provide the funds and Virtus will run the operations, the people said. They didn’t say how much the companies have offered for Chemaf, nor whether the firm’s creditors stand to receive everything they are owed.

The company’s debt remains around the $900 million it totaled when the deal with Norin Mining was dropped four months ago, a person familiar with the matter said. Norin already has two copper-cobalt mines in Congo.

Although Chemaf produces only a modest amount of copper and cobalt, it owns dozens of untapped mining permits in Congo and is building what could become one of the world’s largest cobalt suppliers. The development of the Mutoshi mine stalled following a slump in cobalt prices that drove the company to seek fresh funds.

Trading house Trafigura arranged a $600 million loan for Chemaf in 2022 to finance the upgrade of the existing Etoile operation and the construction of Mutoshi, which has been designed to produce 16,000 tons of cobalt and 50,000 tons of copper a year. The two metals are extracted alongside each other in Congo.

Trafigura syndicated the loan to banks including Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development Bank.

Trafigura declined to comment.

Trump’s government is brokering peace talks between Congo and neighboring Rwanda to end a conflict that’s seen a Kigali-backed rebel group occupy a large swath of the country’s eastern region.

Tshisekedi said last month that Congo is also nearing a separate agreement with the US, focusing on the nation’s world-class mineral deposits including copper, cobalt, lithium and tantalum.

(By William Clowes, Archie Hunter and Michael J. Kavanagh)