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The DRC Council of Ministers, at its 87th extraordinary session on 29 May 2026, adopted decrees expanding the list of strategic mineral substances from 3 (cobalt, germanium, coltan) to 9, adding lithium, tantalum, niobium, tungsten, uranium, and rare earth elements. Under the 2018 Mining Code framework, strategic minerals attract a 10% royalty versus the standard 3.5% for base metals, representing a nearly threefold increase in the state's royalty take on the newly classified substances. The measure was presented by Minister of Mines Louis Watum Kabamba and confirmed by RTNC state broadcaster and Bloomberg reporting (31 May 2026). DRC produces an estimated 60–70% of global tantalum supply; the reclassification extends upstream royalty escalation to six additional high-value critical materials — including Manono lithium deposit output, tantalum refinery streams, and any tungsten, niobium, uranium, or REE operations active or under development.

On 22 May 2026, DRC Minister of Mines Louis Watum Kabamba signed Arrêté ministériel N° 00305/CAB.MIN/MINES/01/2026, imposing an immediate and total three-month suspension of all mining activity (industrial, semi-industrial, and artisanal) in the Mwenga and Shabunda territories of South Kivu province. Grounds cited: illegal extraction, mineral fraud, and financing of armed groups through uncontrolled extraction revenues. The General Inspectorate of Mines was deployed on a special verification mission; the moratorium is set to expire approximately 22 August 2026.

The Government of Sierra Leone officially launched the National Strategy for Critical Minerals 2026-2031 on 20 May 2026 at Sierra Leone Mining Week (Freetown International Conference Centre), with Vice President Dr Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh delivering the keynote address alongside Minister of Mines Julius Daniel Mattai. The strategy commits to attracting USD 2.5 billion in exploration and mining investment, establishing 3-5 domestic mineral-processing plants, and achieving USD 1.5 billion in annual value-added mineral exports by 2031 -- up from a current raw-mineral export base of approximately USD 1.3 billion. Scope covers lithium, graphite, bauxite, cobalt, coltan, rutile, diamonds, iron ore, and rare-earth elements, and frames the national minerals agenda under the theme "Responsible Mining, Value Multiplication and Shared Prosperity."

On April 30, 2026, the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) added former Democratic Republic of the Congo President Joseph Kabange Kabila to the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) List pursuant to Executive Order 13413, as amended by Executive Order 13671 (the DRC sanctions program), for having materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support to the March 23 Movement (M23) and its political-military coalition the Congo River Alliance (Alliance Fleuve Congo, AFC). Treasury press release SB0480 ("Treasury Sanctions Former Democratic Republic of the Congo President for Ties to Armed Conflict") frames the designation as enforcement of the Washington-brokered DRC-Rwanda framework: M23 controls a substantial share of mineral-rich eastern DRC (cobalt, coltan, tin, tungsten, gold) and AFC's renewed rebellion has fuelled a mass-displacement crisis. The notice was published in the Federal Register on May 5, 2026 (FR Doc. 2026-08672). The designation blocks all property and interests in property of Kabila subject to US jurisdiction and prohibits US-person dealings with him. It is a discrete enforcement step under the broader US-DRC Strategic Partnership Agreement (4 December 2025 — the "Washington Accords") and complements earlier 2026 designations of Rwanda Defence Force-linked actors. Treasury frames the action as signalling that political support to M23/AFC, not just direct military or commercial activity, will trigger blocking sanctions.

At its 86th ordinary meeting on 10 April 2026 the DRC Council of Ministers adopted two interlocking decrees: Décret 1 creates the Réserve Stratégique de Substances Minérales Stratégiques (Strategic Reserve of Strategic Mineral Substances), a sui generis public-purpose stockpiling instrument covering cobalt, coltan (tantalum-niobium), and germanium; Décret 2 amends ARECOMS' founding decree, expanding its statutory mandate from export-quota regulator to strategic-reserve operator, authorized to constitute physical stocks through compulsory allocation of quota volumes, voluntary producer acquisition, and royalty-in-kind receipts, and to intervene in international markets via timed releases or withholding to stabilise prices. The instrument materially extends Kinshasa's market- intervention reach beyond the cobalt-only quota framework adopted in February 2025, adding coltan and germanium to ARECOMS' jurisdictional perimeter and giving the DRC a price- stabilisation tool comparable to the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve and China's State Reserve Bureau base-metals stockpile.

On March 29, 2026, the DRC Conseil des Ministres approved a draft decree modifying and supplementing Decree n°11/28 of June 7, 2021, which establishes the statute of the Centre d'Expertise, d'Evaluation et de Certification (CEEC). The reform formally enshrines CEEC as a "certification authority" recognized in law — a role previously exercised in practice but lacking explicit statutory grounding. CEEC gains explicit authority to determine the physicochemical characteristics of all mineral substances produced on DRC territory, covering the nature, chemical composition, geographic origin, and legal provenance of exports across all strategic minerals including cobalt, copper, coltan, cassiterite, gold, and tantalum.

On 22-23 February 2026, President Félix Tshisekedi signed and publicly read on RTNC (state television) a series of presidential ordinances replacing the entire leadership of three strategic state-owned mining companies: Gécamines (copper/cobalt), SAKIMA (Société Aurifère du Kivu et du Maniema — eastern DRC 3T minerals and gold), and SOKIMO (Société Minière de Kilomoto — Kilo-Moto gold sites). New appointees include Baraka Kabemba as DG of Gécamines, Guy Robert Lukama as DG of SAKIMA, and Yannick Nzonde Mulundu as DG of SOKIMO. The sweeping governance reshuffle came approximately two months after the December 4, 2025 DRC-US Strategic Partnership Agreement on Trade and Investment, signalling a strategic repositioning of DRC state mining apparatus toward a US-aligned critical-minerals framework.

The DRC Council of Ministers adopted the projet de décret establishing the Fonds d'Investissement Stratégique de la République Démocratique du Congo (FIS-RDC) at its 54th ordinary session on 15 August 2025, under Finance Minister Doudou Fwamba. Presidential ordinances dated 28 February 2026 appointed a five-member Board of Directors, making the fund operational. The FIS-RDC is a state-directed sovereign vehicle mandated to capture revenues from extractive industries — principally copper, cobalt, coltan, and petroleum — and channel them into strategic national development projects including infrastructure, energy, agriculture, and economic diversification, while valorising state assets and attracting private and institutional co-investors.

On August 12, 2025, OFAC designated four entities — armed group PARECO-FF, Congolese mining cooperative CDMC, and Hong Kong traders East Rise Corporation Ltd. and Star Dragon Corporation Ltd. — pursuant to Executive Order 13413 (amended by EO 13671) for financing armed-group violence and laundering conflict-origin coltan/tantalum from the Rubaya mining area through Rwanda into international markets. The designations freeze US-jurisdictional assets and prohibit US-person dealings with all four entities. Rubaya accounts for approximately 15% of global coltan production, making this the first US action targeting the full armed-group → cooperative → offshore-trader laundering chain for that deposit.

DRC's Cadastre Minier (CAMI) granted KoBold Metals seven exclusive exploration permits covering approximately 1,600 km² in Tanganyika (four permits, Manono territory) and Haut-Lomami (three, Malemba Nkulu territory) provinces, valid for five years. The permits were issued August 27, 2025 following a July 2025 accord de principe between KoBold and the DRC Ministry of Mines; an official handover ceremony was held September 3, 2025, presided by Minister of Mines Louis Watum Kabamba. KoBold Metals — backed by Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and Sam Altman — becomes the first US company to hold formal DRC lithium exploration rights over the Manono deposit, one of the world's largest confirmed hard-rock lithium resources (~400 Mt estimated), placing it in direct strategic competition with Chinese-backed Zijin/La Cominière whose rights over the same deposit are contested in ICSID arbitration by AVZ Minerals.

On 12 February 2025, DRC Minister of Mines Kizito Pakabomba signed an arrêté classifying 38 mining concessions in Masisi (North Kivu) and Kalehe (South Kivu) territories as "red zones," imposing a total prohibition on artisanal extraction, transport, and commercialization of coltan (tantalite-columbite), cassiterite (tin ore), and wolframite (tungsten ore). The measure responded directly to the December 2024 UN Group of Experts report documenting that M23/AFC armed groups were controlling and taxing coltan extraction at Rubaya — at least 150 tonnes/month fraudulently exported to Rwanda and blended with legitimate Rwandan production, constituting what the UN described as the largest contamination ever recorded of mineral supply chains in the Great Lakes region. The initial six-month ban (12 February – 11 August 2025) was extended for a further six months by Minister Louis Watum Kabamba's prorogation arrêté of 3 November 2025 (retroactive from 12 August 2025). DRC accounts for approximately 60–70% of global tantalum mine supply; Rubaya alone is one of the world's highest-density artisanal coltan producing zones.

Cabinet Secretary for Mining issued comprehensive royalty-collection regulations under section 183 of the Mining Act 2016, published as Legal Notice No. 106 of 2024 in Kenya Gazette Vol. CXXVI No. 98 of 5 July 2024 (commenced 3 July 2024). The regulations standardise royalty rates by mineral and royalty-base methodology (gross sales value), set a 120-day payment window with CBK-rate compounding penalties for late payment, and codify the 70/30 national-county allocation split with the county portion further divided 60% county / 20% community development / 20% landowner royalties. Companion to the October 2023 lifting of the four-year mining-licence moratorium and reclassification of REE, niobium, lithium, graphite and coltan as "strategic minerals" requiring case-by-case licensing through the National Mining Corporation. Subsequently declared unconstitutional by the High Court in September 2025 for failure to meet public-participation requirements (see amendments).

Burundi's Assemblée Nationale promulgated Loi n°1/19 of 4 August 2023, amending the 2013 Mining Code (Loi n°1/21 of 15 October 2013). The law introduces mandatory 16% no-cost state equity participation in all large-mine joint ventures — rising by 5% at each permit renewal — caps individual operators to two permits per mineral substance, and imposes a 0.5% of turnover municipal development levy. Implementing decrees and orders followed: Décret n°100/224 of 23 November 2023 (artisanal/small-scale licensing), and Joint Ministerial Order n°760/540/1443 of 11 December 2023 (fiscal regime). Burundi holds East Africa's second-largest coltan reserves and significant cassiterite, gold, REE, nickel, and phosphate deposits, making this reform structurally significant for regional critical-mineral supply chains.

On 27 January 2018 the DRC National Assembly adopted Loi n° 18/001, comprehensively amending the foundational 2002 Mining Code (Loi n° 007/2002); President Joseph Kabila promulgated the law on 9 March 2018, published in the Journal Officiel special issue of 28 March 2018, with implementing Décret n° 18/024 (Règlement Minier) following on 8 June 2018. The Code introduces a 10% royalty on minerals designated "strategic" by the Council of Ministers — cobalt, coltan, lithium, and germanium confirmed — up from the 2% standard non-ferrous rate, and raises all standard mining royalties (non-ferrous 2→3.5%, precious metals 2.5→3.5%, precious stones 4→6%). The state's mandatory free-carry interest in new mining projects is doubled from 5% to 10% (Article 71), with a further 10% paid-carry option creating an effective 20% state-participation floor; contract-stability guarantees are simultaneously curtailed from 10 to 5 years (Article 276), explicitly invalidating pre-existing stabilisation clauses. As the foundational statute governing every DRC mining-rights grant, royalty-rate setting, and export-control delegation, the 2018 Code is the parent authority for ARECOMS (established 2019 under its strategic-minerals framework) and the legal basis for both the 2025 cobalt export-ban/quota regime and the 2025 artisanal-processing suspension — making it the mandatory upstream context for the entire filed DRC action cluster.