Belgium denies private access to Congo colonial mining archives
The Belgian government is at odds with Congo and the US company KoBold Metals over access to colonial-era geological archives, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday. The archives are held at the AfricaMuseum in Tervuren.
The government in Kinshasa wants to collaborate with KoBold Metals, a company that specialises in extracting critical minerals such as cobalt, lithium and copper, in order to digitise Belgium's colonial archives. These archives contain detailed information on Congo’s natural resources. Digital versions would be extremely valuable to KoBold, as the company uses artificial intelligence in its exploration activities.
According to the Financial Times, however, Belgian authorities are refusing to grant access to a foreign private company that has no contractual relationship with the Belgian state. The federal government points out that a digitisation project is already underway with European funding. Under that arrangement, the Congolese authorities receive the data in stages and are expected to gain full control over it in due course.
No exclusive private access
In a response to Belga, Digitisation minister Vanessa Matz confirmed that the archives in Tervuren remain accessible to researchers and the public, but said Belgium cannot grant exclusive access to a private foreign company, as this would affect their public use.
"The data must be made available in accordance with Belgian and European rules" in a "scientific, non-exclusive and non-privatising framework," Matz said. According to the minister, information about the progress of the digitisation project is shared with the Congolese authorities almost daily. Part of the archives has already been transferred to Kinshasa.
The AfricaMuseum said it is not a party to the agreement between KoBold and the Congolese government. "We can give them access to specific documents," said museum director Bart Ouvry. "But it is impossible to allow a private company to privatise the archives in their entirety."
Ouvry added that the museum has been digitising the collection for two years. The archives span nearly half a kilometre of documents.
© BELGA PHOTO ERIC LALMAND
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