Artisanal miners in the North Kivu region of the Democratic Republic of Congo will soon face a $100 million paramilitary wall between themselves and the minerals they extract. The Congolese government has launched a new 'mining guard,' a special unit funded directly by the United States and the United Arab Emirates, per Mining.com. This force is designed to take over duties from national defense forces, securing the entire 'mineral exploitation chain' for foreign investors.

The deployment follows a mineral partnership where the American firm Virtus Minerals took over the copper and cobalt company Chemaf. According to a statement from the General Inspectorate of Mines, the unit is intended to "secure the entire mineral exploitation chain" and curb smuggling. In practice, it represents the formalization of 'Mineral Imperialism,' where the military power of the Global North is used to fence off the raw materials of the South.

While the DRC produces 70 percent of the world’s cobalt, the human cost of this extraction is hidden behind paramilitary lines. As the Rwanda-backed M23 insurgency continues to displace hundreds of thousands in the east, the creation of a private army for mines illustrates a grim priority. The state is not being built to protect its people; it is being hollowed out to serve as an armed tollbooth for battery metals destined for Western markets.