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Race to the Future
As the clean energy revolution upends the centuries-long lock of fossil fuels on the global economy, dealmakers and hustlers converge on the Fleuve Congo Hotel.
Felix Tshisekedi, the Congolese president, top in the gray suit, arrived this spring at the Fleuve Congo Hotel in Kinshasa.Credit...
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By Dionne Searcey,Eric Lipton and Michael Forsythe
Photographs by Ashley Gilbertson
KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of Congo — The lobby of the Fleuve Congo Hotel was a swirl of double-breasted suits and tailored dresses one April morning. Shiny gold watches dangled from wrists. Stilettos clacked across marble floors. Smooth jazz played as men in designer loafers sipped espressos.
Situated on the banks of the muddy, furious Congo River, the Fleuve is an emporium of ambition in a nation that, despite extreme poverty and chronic corruption, serves up raw materials crucial to the planet’s battle against climate change.
The soil in the Democratic Republic of Congo is bursting with cobalt and other metals used in the production of electric car batteries, wind turbines and other mainstays of the green energy revolution. Practically everyone who passes through the hotel, where the air conditioning battles the sweltering heat, seems determined to grab a piece of the wealth.
Just off the lobby that day, near a sumptuous brunch buffet, sat Dikembe Mutombo, the 7-foot-2 former NBA all-star player. He had teamed up in his quest for mineral riches with Gentry Beach, a Texas hedge-fund manager who is a family friend and major fund-raiser to former President Donald J. Trump. Mr. Mutombo shared his table with a top Congolese mining lawyer turned politician whose office is conveniently located in a complex near the hotel.
Mr. Mutombo is among a wave of adventurers and opportunists who have filled a vacuum created by the departure of major American mining companies, and by the reluctance of other traditional Western firms to do business in a country with a reputation for labor abuses and bribery.
The list of fortune hunters includes Erik Prince, the security contractor and ex-Navy SEAL; Jide Zeitlin, the Nigerian-born former chief executive of the parent company of Coach and Kate Spade; and Aliaune Thiam, the Senegalese-American musician known as Akon.
Who Are Congo’s Cobalt Entrepreneurs?
Who Are Congo’s Cobalt Entrepreneurs?
The Democratic Republic of Congo’s vast supply of cobalt, used in electric vehicles, is attracting an international cast of investors, including an R&B singer and a basketball star.
Here are some high-profile players →
Who Are Congo’s Cobalt Entrepreneurs?
Erik Prince, former Navy SEAL, served as chairman of the Chinese-based company Frontier Services Group, which has offered a range of security, transport and insurance services in Congo’s mining sector.
Who Are Congo’s Cobalt Entrepreneurs?
Akon, who sings hits like “Smack That,” signed a deal to develop a cobalt mine. His company says it’s going into mining with the goal of “championing women’s rights, protecting the environment,” while also, without providing details, trying to “obliterate poverty” in Africa.
Who Are Congo’s Cobalt Entrepreneurs?
Jide Zeitlin, former C.E.O. of the parent company of Coach and Kate Spade, has shopped around a plan to take over cobalt mines owned by Swiss-based Glencore, which is facing a corruption investigation.
Who Are Congo’s Cobalt Entrepreneurs?
Dikembe Mutombo, a Congolese-American former NBA all-star, is known in his home country for opening a school and a hospital. He’s planning a $1 billion mining project but says he isn’t like “opportunist investors that are seizing the hot deal of the moment.”
To learn more about Congo’s international dealmakers and the luxury hotel where many of them convene, read our story.
- A Power Struggle Over Cobalt Rattles the Clean Energy Revolution
- How the U.S. Lost Ground to China in the Contest for Clean Energy
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