WORRIES:
As major powers increasingly eye Congolese soil to compete in rare earths, the museum has grappled with how much data to share with the mining sector
AFP, TERVUREN, Belgium
From century-old maps to meticulous field notes, Belgium is sitting on a trove of geological records on colonial-era Congo — a coveted archive it is working to open up amid a global scramble for critical minerals.Teeming documents charting the rich subsoil of what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) fill nearly 500m of shelving at the AfricaMuseum in Tervuren.The museum has pledged to digitize the contents and make them public within five years — and as the race for so-called rare earths heats up, it has grappled with how far to share the data with the mining sector.
A 20th century map depicting a mining operation mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is displayed at the AfricaMuseum in Tervuren, Belgium, on Feb. 19, 2024.
