Belgium is opening a vast colonial geological archive on the Democratic Republic of Congo, giving Kinshasa access to decades of mining records with significant economic potential.
The archive at the AfricaMuseum near Brussels contains nearly 500 metres of maps, survey reports and mining files compiled before Congo’s independence in 1960.
Congolese officials hope the records will help identify untapped mineral deposits, attract investment and strengthen oversight of a sector linked to resources the U.S. International Trade Administration values at about $24 trillion.
Museum geologist Francois Kervyn called the archive scientifically remarkable, reflecting decades of fieldwork in remote regions without modern surveying technology.
The digitisation effort accelerated after U.S. company KoBold Metals sought access, but the museum rejected its proposal to avoid giving a single company privileged access.
KoBold Metals later partnered with the Congolese government and says it has digitised about 170,000 pages of mining records at Lubumbashi University since April.
