Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday touted success in an international push to build out a critical cross-country rail line through the heart of mineral-rich Africa, an effort designed to counter China’s stronghold there.
Blinken, speaking at an event on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York City, said the multinational effort to build the “Lobito Corridor” is gaining steam, hailing it as “one of our biggest projects.”
Critical minerals and raw materials — cobalt, lithium, copper and nickel — have emerged as a hot topic this week at the U.N. climate gathering. On Monday, the U.S. and other members of the Minerals Security Partnership launched an effort to pull together financing for mineral projects needed to feed the manufacturing of electric vehicles, renewable energy technologies and defense applications.
The Lobito Corridor is an ambitious rail project that’s poised to link Africa’s Indian and Atlantic ocean coasts with resource-rich countries like Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, the world’s largest source of cobalt. Should the line be built, mines and other projects along the route would be linked with international ports and markets.
