By Joshua Frank, an award-winning California-based journalist and co-editor of CounterPunch.\u00a0He is the author of the new book\u00a0Atomic Days: The Untold Story of the Most Toxic Place in America. Originally published at TomDispatch.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Considered Angola\u2019s crown jewel by many, Lobito is a colorful port city on the country\u2019s scenic Atlantic coast where a nearly five-kilometer strip of land creates a natural harbor. Its white sand beaches, vibrant blue waters, and mild tropical climate have made Lobito a tourist destination in recent years. Yet under its shiny new facade is a history fraught with colonial violence and exploitation.<\/p>\n
The Portuguese were the first Europeans to lay claim to Angola in the late sixteenth century. For nearly four centuries, they didn\u2019t relent until a bloody, 27-year civil war with anticolonial guerillas (aided by the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces) and bolstered by a leftist coup in distant Lisbon, Portugal\u2019s capital, overthrew that colonial regime in 1974.<\/p>\n
Lobito\u2019s port was the economic heart of Portugal\u2019s reign in Angola, along with the meandering 1,866-kilometer Benguela Railway, which first became operational in the early 1900s. For much of the twentieth century, Lobito was the hub for exporting to Europe agricultural goods and metals mined in Africa\u2019s Copperbelt. Today, the Copperbelt remains a resource-rich region encompassing much of the Democratic Republic of Congo and northern Zambia.<\/p>\n
Perhaps it won\u2019t shock you to learn that, half a century after Portugal\u2019s colonial control of Angola ended, neocolonialism is now sinking its hooks into Lobito. Its port and the Benguela Railway, which travels along what\u2019s known as the Lobito Corridor, have become a key nucleus of China\u2019s and the Western world\u2019s efforts to transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources in our hot new world. If capitalist interests continue to drive this crucial transition, which is all too likely, while global energy consumption isn\u2019t scaled back radically, the amount of critical minerals needed to power the global future remains unfathomable. The World Economic Forum estimates that three billion tons of metals will be required. The International Energy Forum estimates that to meet the global goals of radically reducing carbon emissions, we\u2019ll also need between 35 and 194 massive copper mines by 2050.<\/p>\n
When you want to understand what the future holds for a country in the \u201cdeveloping\u201d world, as economists still like to call such regions, look no further than the International Monetary Fund (IMF). \u201cWith growing demand, proceeds from critical minerals are poised to rise significantly over the next two decades,\u201d reports the IMF. \u201cGlobal revenues from the extraction of just four key minerals \u2014 copper, nickel, cobalt, and lithium \u2014 are estimated to total $16 trillion over the next 25 years. Sub-Saharan Africa stands to reap over 10 percent of these accumulated revenues, which could correspond to an increase in the region\u2019s GDP by 12 percent or more by 2050.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sub-Saharan Africa alone is believed to contain 30% of the world\u2019s total critical mineral reserves. It\u2019s estimated that the Congo is responsible for 70% of global cobalt output and approximately 50% of the globe\u2019s reserves. In fact, the demand for cobalt, a key ingredient in most lithium-ion batteries, is rapidly increasing because of its use in everything from cell phones to electric vehicles. As for copper, Africa has two of the world\u2019s top producers, with Zambia accounting for 70% of the continent\u2019s output. \u201cThis transition,\u201d adds the IMF, \u201cif managed properly, has the potential to transform the region.\u201d And, of course, it won\u2019t be pretty.<\/p>\n
While such critical minerals might be mined in rural areas of the Congo and Zambia, they must reach the international marketplace to become profitable, which makes Angola and the Lobito Corridor key to Africa\u2019s booming mining industry.<\/p>\n
In 2024, China committed $4.5 billion to African lithium mines alone and another $7 billion to investments in copper and cobalt mining infrastructure. In the Congo, for example, China controls 70% of the mining sector.<\/p>\n
Having lagged behind that country\u2019s investments in Africa for years, the U.S. is now looking to make up ground.<\/p>\n
Zambia\u2019s Copper Colonialism<\/p>\n
In September 2023, on the sidelines of the G20 meeting in India, Secretary of State Antony Blinken quietly signed an agreement with Angola, Zambia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the European Union to launch the Lobito Corridor project. There wasn\u2019t much fanfare or news coverage, but the United States had made a significant move. Almost 50 years after Portugal was forced out of Angola, the West was back, offering a $4 billion commitment and assessing the need to update the infrastructure first built by European colonizers. With a growing need for critical minerals, Western countries are now setting their sights on Africa and its green energy treasures.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe meet at a historic moment,\u201d President Joe Biden said as he welcomed Angolan President Jo\u00e3o Louren\u00e7o to Washington last year. Biden then called the Lobito project the \u201cbiggest U.S. rail investment in Africa ever\u201d and affirmed the West\u2019s interest in what the region might have to offer in the future. \u201cAmerica,\u201d he added, \u201cis all in on Africa\u2026 We\u2019re all in with you and Angola.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both Africa and the U.S., Biden was careful to imply, would reap the benefits of such a coalition. Of course, that\u2019s precisely the kind of rhetoric we can expect when Western (or Chinese) interests are intent on acquiring the resources of the Global South. If this were about oil or coal, questions and concerns would undoubtedly be raised regarding America\u2019s regional intentions. Yet, with the fight against climate change providing cover, few are considering the geopolitical ramifications of such a position \u2014 and even fewer acknowledging the impacts of massively increased mining on the continent.<\/p>\n
In his book Cobalt Red, Siddharth Kara exposes the bloody conditions cobalt miners in the Congo endure, many of them children laboring against their will for days on end, with little sleep and under excruciatingly abusive conditions. The dreadful story is much the same in Zambia, where copper exports account for more than 70% of the country\u2019s total export revenue. A devastating 126-page report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) from 2011 exposed the wretchedness inside Zambia\u2019s Chinese-owned mines: 18-hour work days, unsafe working environments, rampant anti-union activities, and fatal workplace accidents. There is little reason to believe it\u2019s much different in the more recent Western-owned operations.<\/p>\n
\u201cFriends tell you that there\u2019s a danger as they\u2019re coming out of shift,\u201d a miner who was injured while working for a Chinese company told HRW. \u201cYou\u2019ll be fired if you refuse, they threaten this all the time\u2026 The main accidents are from rock falls, but you also have electrical shocks, people hit by mining trucks underground, people falling from platforms that aren\u2019t stable\u2026 In my accident, I was in a loading box. The mine captain\u2026 didn\u2019t put a platform. So when we were working, a rock fell down and hit my arm. It broke to the extent that the bone was coming out of the arm.\u201d<\/p>\n
An explosion at one mine killed 51 workers in 2005 and things have only devolved since then. Ten workers died in 2018 at an illegal copper extraction site. In 2019, three mineworkers were burned to death in an underground shaft fire and a landslide at an open-pit copper mine in Zambia killed more than 30 miners in 2023. Despite such horrors, there\u2019s a rush to extract ever more copper in Zambia. As of 2022, five gigantic open-pit copper mines were operating in the country, and eight more underground mines were in production, many of which are to be further expanded in the years ahead. With new U.S.-backed mines in the works, Washington believes the Lobito Corridor may prove to be the missing link needed to ensure Zambian copper will end up in green energy goods consumed in the West.<\/p>\n
AI Mining for AI Energy<\/p>\n
The office of KoBold Metals in quaint downtown Berkeley, California, is about as far away from Zambia\u2019s dirty mines as you can get. Yet, at KoBold\u2019s nondescript headquarters, which sits above a row of trendy bars and restaurants, a team of tech entrepreneurs diligently work to locate the next big mine operation in Zambia using proprietary Artificial Intelligence (AI). Backed by billionaires Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, KoBold bills itself as a green Silicon Valley machine, committed to the world\u2019s green energy transition (while turning a nice profit).<\/p>\n
It is in KoBold\u2019s interest, of course, to secure the energy deposits of the future because it will take an immense amount of energy to support their artificially intelligent world. A recent report by the International Energy Agency estimates that, in the near future, electricity usage by AI data centers will increase significantly. As of 2022, such data centers were already utilizing 460 terawatt hours (TWh) but are on pace to increase to 1,050 TWh by the middle of the decade. To put that in perspective, Europe\u2019s total energy consumption in 2023 was around 2,700 TWh.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnyone who\u2019s in the renewable space in the western world\u2026 is looking for copper and cobalt, which are fundamental to making electric vehicles,\u201d Mfikeyi Makayi, chief executive of KoBold in Zambia, explained to the Financial Times in 2024. \u201cThat is going to come from this part of the world and the shortest route to take them out is Lobito.\u201d<\/p>\n
Makayi wasn\u2019t beating around the bush. The critical minerals in KoBold mines won\u2019t end up in the possession of Zambia or any other African country. They are bound for Western consumers alone. KoBold\u2019s CEO Kurt House is also honest about his intentions: \u201cI don\u2019t need to be reminded again that I\u2019m a capitalist,\u201d he\u2019s been known to quip.<\/p>\n
In July 2024, House rang his company\u2019s investors with great news: KoBold had just hit the jackpot in Zambia. Its novel AI tech had located the largest copper find in more than a decade. Once running, it could produce upwards of 300,000 tons of copper annually \u2014 or, in the language investors understand, the cash will soon flow. As of late summer 2024, one ton of copper on the international market cost more than $9,600. Of course, KoBold has gone all in, spending $2.3 billion to get the Zambian mine operable by 2030. Surely, KoBold\u2019s investors were excited by the prospect, but not everyone was as thrilled as them.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe value of copper that has left Zambia is in the hundreds of billions of dollars. Hold that figure in your mind, and then look around yourself in Zambia,\u201d says Zambian economist Grieve Chelwa. \u201cThe link between resource and benefit is severed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not only has Zambia relinquished the benefits of such mineral exploitation, but \u2014 consider it a guarantee \u2014 its people will be left to suffer the local mess that will result.<\/p>\n
The Poisoned River<\/p>\n
Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) is today the largest ore producer in Zambia, ripping out a combined two million tons of copper a year. It\u2019s one of the nation\u2019s largest employers, with a brutally long record of worker and environmental abuses. KCM runs Zambia\u2019s largest open-pit mine, which stretches for seven miles. In 2019, the British-based Vedanta Resources acquired an 80% stake in KCM by covering $250 million of that company\u2019s debt. Vedanta has deep pockets and is run by Indian billionaire Anil Agarwal, affectionately known in the mining world as \u201cthe Metal King.\u201d<\/p>\n
One thing should be taken for granted: You don\u2019t become the Metal King without leaving entrails of toxic waste on your coattails. In India, Agarwal\u2019s alumina mines have polluted the lands of the Indigenous Kondh tribes in Orissa Province. In Zambia, his copper mines have wrecked farmlands and waterways that once supplied fish and drinking water to thousands of villagers.<\/p>\n
The Kafue River runs for more than 1,500 kilometers, making it Zambia\u2019s longest river and now probably its most polluted as well. Going north to south, its waters flow through the Copperbelt, carrying with them cadmium, lead, and mercury from KCM\u2019s mine. In 2019, thousands of Zambian villagers sued Vedanta, claiming its subsidiary KCM had poisoned the Kafue River and caused insurmountable damage to their lands.<\/p>\n
The British Supreme Court then found Vedanta liable, and the company was forced to pay an undisclosed settlement, likely in the millions of dollars. Such a landmark victory for those Zambian villagers couldn\u2019t have happened without the work of Chilekwa Mumba, who organized communities and convinced an international law firm to take up the case. Mumba grew up in the Chingola region of Zambia, where his father worked in the mines.<\/p>\n
\u201c[T]here was some environmental degradation going on as a result of the mining activities. As we found, there were times when the acid levels of water was so high,\u201d explained Mumba, the 2023 African recipient of the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize. \u201cSo there were very specific complaints about stomach issues from children. Children just really wander around the villages and if they are thirsty, they don\u2019t think about what\u2019s happening, they\u2019ll just get a cup and take their drink of water from the river. That\u2019s how they live. So they\u2019ll usually get diseases. It\u2019s hard to quantify, but clearly the impact was there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sadly enough, though, despite that important legal victory, little has changed in Zambia, where environmental regulations remain weak and nearly impossible to enforce, which leaves mining companies like KCM to regulate themselves. A 2024 Zambian legislative bill seeks to create a regulatory body to oversee mining operations, but the industry has pushed back, making it unclear if it will ever be signed into law. Even if the law does pass, it may have little real-world impact on mining practices there.<\/p>\n
The warming climate, at least to the billionaire mine owners and their Western accomplices, will remain an afterthought, as well as a justification to exploit more of Africa\u2019s critical minerals. Consider it a new type of colonialism, this time with a green capitalist veneer. There are just too many AI programs to run, too many tech gadgets to manufacture, and too much money to be made.<\/p>\n
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