By bizn_fun 
This American investment is being led by a government agency called the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC). This was set up in 2019 during President Trump’s first term of office, and it is not shy about saying that its mission is to take on Beijing. The DFC says on its website that it was established as a means of “countering China’s presence in strategic regions”., external
What does this investment mean for African firms and countries who are beneficiaries?
Last year Rwandan mining company Trinity Metals secured a $3.9m grant, external from the DFC to help develop the three mines that it owns in the country, producing tin, tantalum and tungsten.
“The US government has been very supportive of what we’ve been doing, to look at bringing that supply chain directly to the United States,” says company chairman Shawn McCormick.
Trinity now sends tungsten from Rwanda to a processing plant in Pennsylvania. It has also struck a deal to send Rwandan tin to a smelter in Pennsylvania.
Mr McCormick denies that the funding from Washington influenced the company’s decision to send supplies to the US.
“This was not the US government who said to the CEO and I ‘could you please get that tungsten to America?’ It’s our decision as players in the commercial market.”
Trinity is 5% owned by the Rwandan government, and Irish critical minerals investment firm TechMet is also a shareholder.
Mr McCormick adds that while some mining operations in Africa can use untrained workers operating in dangerous conditions, Trinity follows the highest standards.
“We have shown that there is a way to produce these materials in a conflict free, child labour free way that is professionalised, and that’s paying taxes and respecting the community and the environment, creating jobs and opportunity”.