Erik Prince, a businessman and longtime supporter of President Donald Trump, has reportedly agreed to help the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) secure and tax its vast mineral wealth.
According to Reuters, he reached the agreement before the M23 rebel group launched a major offensive in January 2025 that saw them seize key cities in eastern Congo, including Goma. Two sources close to Prince, a Congolese official, and two diplomats confirmed new discussions, focusing on improving tax collection and reducing cross-border smuggling of valuable minerals.
With the cash leaks in Congo’s mining sector, there’s a desperate need for structure,” said one source. Despite no confirmed links to the U.S. government or military, security contractors remain a possible option under future U.S. support frameworks.
Prince, best known as the founder of Blackwater—the private security firm implicated in the killing of Iraqi civilians in 2007—has operated in Africa for over a decade, providing logistics and security services for mining and oil companies. His companies have been active in Congo since 2015, though previous attempts to deploy contractors, including a 2023 proposal to send thousands to the conflict-ridden east, failed to materialize.
The DRC’s mineral wealth is staggering. The country holds an estimated 6 million metric tons of cobalt, over 57% of global reserves, essential for electric vehicle batteries. It also possesses around 75 million metric tons of copper, 150 million carats of diamonds, and vast gold, coltan, tin, and lithium deposits, most of which are extracted under poor oversight and often smuggled out of the country. KoBold Metals, a startup backed by billionaires Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, has recently approached DRC, inquiring about lithium mining, while copper giant Freeport-McMoran FCX has floated the idea about returning to the jurisdiction it exited in 2020.
Smuggling conflict minerals has been a heated topic. The DRC accused and even sued Apple before the French prosecutor dropped the charges, classifying them as “not sufficiently well-founded.”
Sources say Prince’s initial security deployment is expected in the Katanga province, particularly at copper mines near Kolwezi – a region allegedly losing up to $40 million per month in untracked mineral flows. Sources noted they expect contractors to avoid direct conflict zones, instead deploying alongside commodity inspection specialists to improve transparency and revenue collection.
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