Name: Congo's antique maps put a museum and a mining company at odds
Uploaded: 2026-03-05T16:54:48.000Z
Duration: 2 min 24 s
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These antique maps are at the centre of a disagreement between Belgium's Africa Museum and a US mining company backed by billionaires Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates.

They're part of a colonial era archive containing millions of documents that record the mapping and exploitation of mineral wealth in what is now Democratic Republic of Congo.

Mining startup Cobalt Metal says its offer to support Congo in digitising the archive.

Cobalt DRC's director general, Benjamin Katubuka, says that's something they've been asked to do by Congo's government.

This country needs more investment in exploration and we need the data to be available to the public to make that happen.

But the Belgian Museum, backed by Belgian authorities, has refused.

It says it already has a separate project with Congo to digitise the data, backed by the European Union.

Francois Kervin, head of the Afghan museum's Earth Sciences Department, said cobol's proposal to digitize the complete set of archives was not possible.

It's not acceptable that we put all this information in the private sector.

We are a public institution, so we are dealing with all the public institutions and in this case we are establishing a cooperation or collaboration with the.

Congo's Ministry of Mines did not respond to requests for comment.

A Belgian government spokesperson said exclusive access to what is a public asset could not be granted to a foreign company or private entity that does not have a contractual relationship.

Belgium's King Leopold II seized Congo in 1885 for his personal enrichment.

The territory was plundered and the population subjected to extreme brutality.

Leopold ran it as a fiefdom until 1908, when it became a Belgian colony.

Congo gained independence in 1960 and is rich in deposits of lithium, copper, cobalt and coltan.

And that's as global competition for critical minerals increases.

Cobalt is one of several US companies expanding in Congo.

Washington has deepened its strategic partnership with Kinshasa, aiming to reduce reliance on China for materials needed for batteries, electronics and defense.