The Electric: Trump May Be Jeopardizing a Critical Metals Win in Africa

In December, then-President Joe Biden traveled to Angola’s Atlantic port of Lobito in a challenge to China’s grip on Africa’s rich supplies of metals used in electric vehicles, high-tech devices and weapons.

With a flourish, Biden announced $560 million in funding to build projects along an 800-mile railway from the Democratic Republic of Congo to Lobito that he said would make it much faster to ship products to the U.S. and Europe. The money brought total U.S. funding for the rail corridor to $4 billion. “The United States is all in on Africa,” Biden said.

But soon after taking office last month, President Donald Trump froze the Lobito funding, casting doubt on the corridor, a pillar of the U.S. effort to counter China’s decadeslong campaign to corner global supplies of cobalt, lithium and other metals.