Recruits in stiff new fatigues stand at attention in the shimmering heat of Kinshasa, representing the newest line of defense for the world’s most precious dirt. The Democratic Republic of Congo’s General Inspectorate of Mines has announced the creation of a paramilitary unit to police its mines, backed by a $100 million budget. The plan is to deploy 3,000 armed recruits by December, with a target of 20,000 guards by 2028. This “mining guard” is designed to insulate the cobalt and copper extraction chains from the chaos of civil war and armed group activity, ensuring that the batteries for the world’s luxury EVs remain on schedule.

However, the funding for this private army is already a point of high-society friction. While Kinshasa claimed the unit was funded by strategic partnerships with the United States and the United Arab Emirates, the US embassy was quick to issue a polite but firm denial. “The US government is not currently funding any units to patrol or guard mines in the Congo,” the embassy said in a statement on Tuesday. This discrepancy suggests a new form of “Mineral Imperialism,” where private capital and regional powers bypass official diplomatic channels to secure their own physical logistical zones.

The unit is part of a wider effort to attract investment by providing the one thing more valuable than the minerals themselves: security. For the elite investors in the Global North, the Congo is the second-largest copper producer and top cobalt supplier, making it the bedrock of the green energy transition. By establishing a paramilitary guard, the DRC is attempting to offer a “sovereign security rent” to those who can afford the entry fee. Whether the funding is official or shadow-banked, the result is the same: the cobalt kingdom is being fortified for the elite, one recruit at a time.