US finalizing $500 million for African critical minerals railway

The US International Development Finance Corp. is finalizing more than $500 million in financing for the Lobito corridor, a railway project that will haul critical minerals from central Africa’s copper belt to an Atlantic port in Angola.

The DFC is “actively negotiating” with stakeholders, including the Angolan government and Trafigura Group over the funding, Conor Coleman, head of investments at DFC, told reporters on the sidelines of the US-Africa Business Summit in the Angolan capital, Luanda, on Monday.

“We remain very committed to that project overall and we’re working tirelessly to make sure that project is effectuated,” he said.

The DFC first said it’s reviewing financing for the project in 2023. Coleman declined to comment on the reasons for the delay, adding that they’re unrelated to any changes the Trump administration has planned for the DFC.

“There’s business as usual” at the DFC, Coleman said. “You’ll see us playing a lot in critical minerals infrastructure, both digital and transportation, as well as energy, especially here on the African continent.”

The DFC has committed a $3.4 million technical assistance grant to Pensana Plc’s rare earths extraction and processing project in Angola and is in talks to finance Carrinho Group’s agricultural manufacturing plant through a senior secured-debt facility.

In separate comments, Angola’s Minister of State for Economic Coordination Jose de Lima Massano attributed the delays to contractual clauses, including guarantees sought by the funders.

“These aren’t state loans,” Massano said. “We’re working to ensure the right conditions for private investment to advance quickly.”

Neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo is also asking the DFC to support plans to rehabilitate a railway line from the country’s copper and cobalt mines around the town of Kolwezi that connects to the corridor, Congolese Transport Minister Jean-Pierre Bemba said.

The country is already in talks with the European Union and the European Investment Bank about supporting a public-private partnership to develop the project, Bemba said. A small amount of planned funding for the project from USAID was blocked amid cuts to the agency by the Trump administration earlier this year.

Congo’s government plans to launch a tender to build the infrastructure in November, with the hope the railway may be running in three years, Bemba said.

Congo is the world’s biggest cobalt producer and second-largest copper miner, and has huge deposits of lithium that could be shipped along the line.

The Trump administration has shown a keen interest in Africa’s critical minerals as it seeks to challenge China’s dominance.

While the US lags China in the minerals race in Africa, it’s “not too late,” Coleman said. China currently processes all the minerals it extracts from the continent in China, “and that’s not what any of the countries want,” he said.

There is room for the US and for the countries to diversify their customer base and think differently about beneficiation, Coleman said. “There’s opportunity in the lateness.”

(By Candido Mendes and Jennifer Zabasajja)