• China cut off supplies of germanium in 2023, in a war with the West about microchips and the minerals used to make them.
  • The West just scored a victory in the DRC, which is now due to start shipping germanium concentrates later this year.
  • Over time, the US hopes, the DRC can help break China’s hold on the metal, as its biggest supplier by far.

The United States, European Union, and Japan are celebrating an African victory in an ongoing war with China around minerals critical in high-tech applications.

In a new deal, Belgian company Umicore has partnered with Democratic Republic of Congo company Gecamines to recover germanium, a rare metal used in semiconductor manufacturing and some high-tech military gear.

Under a long-term agreement with Gecamines subsidiary La Société pour le Traitement du Terril de Lubumbashi (STL), the European company will be involved in recovering germanium from the Big Hill tailings site in Lubumbashi.

The deal falls under the banner of the Minerals Security Partnership (MSP), a collaboration of 14 countries and the European Union that is chaired by the USA.

The US Department of State said in a statement that the partnership was a “powerful demonstration of the MSP’s capacity to secure and diversify critical mineral supply chains, which bring economic benefits to local communities and source countries like the DRC.”

Big Hill is a 10 million-tonne dump rich in zinc, silver, cobalt, and copper, according to Umicore, but germanium may be the most important prize.

Last year, China halted overseas shipments of germanium without special export licences. That came as the USA sought to limit China’s access to advanced microchips manufactured in the West – often using minerals from China, which accounts for 68% of the world’s supply of germanium, according to the US Geological Survey.

Several African countries may hold the key to breaking a Chinese stranglehold on various rare earth minerals, which are critical in high-tech and renewable power products. These minerals are similar to germanium.

The germanium from Lubumbashi is now due to be part-processed on site, creating germanium concentrates. The first exports under the new partnership are expected in the second half of the year.

Over time, the MSP hopes, the DRC could account for 30% of the global supply of germanium – enough to “bolster supply chains to US European, and Japanese markets,” the US State Department said.