Nestled in the green hills of Masisi territory in the Democratic of Congo, the artisanal Rubaya mining site hums with the sound of generators, as hundreds of men labor by hand to extract coltan, a key mineral crucial for producing modern electronics and defense technology — and fiercely sought after worldwide.

Rubaya lies in the heart of eastern Congo, a mineral-rich part of the Central African nation which for decades has been ripped apart by violence from government forces and different armed groups, including M23 rebel group, whose recent resurgence has escalated the conflict, worsening an already acute humanitarian crisis.

DRC and the UN accuse Rwanda of backing the M23 group, an accusation Kigali denies.

As the US spearheads peace talks between DRC and Rwanda, the Trump administration has set mineral deals between Washington and the two countries as a precondition for its support towards a peaceful resolution of the conflict.

While details of the deals remain unclear, analysts said Rubaya might be one of the mining sites which fall under its scope.

Eastern Congo has been in and out of crisis for decades. The conflict has created one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises with more than seven million people displaced, including 500,000 who fled homes this year.

Shadowy business

The Rubaya mines have been at the centre of the fighting, changing hands between the Congolese government and rebel groups. For over a year now, it has been controlled by the M23 rebels, who earlier this year advanced and seized the strategic city of Goma and Bukavu in a major escalation of the conflict.

Despite the country's exceptional mineral wealth, over 70% of Congolese live on less than $2.15 a day.

For the men working in the Rubaya’s mines, who rely on the mining for their livelihoods, little has changed over decades of violence.

One of them is Jean Baptiste Bigirimana, who has worked in the mines for seven years.

“I earn $40 a month, but that’s not enough," he said. "Children need clothes, education and food. When I divide up the money to see how I will take care of my children, I realise it’s not enough,” he told AFP news agency, adding that he doesn’t know where the minerals he mines go once they leave Rubaya.

The mines produce coltan — short for columbite-tantalite — an ore from which the metals tantalum and niobium are extracted. Both are considered critical raw materials by the United States, the European Union, China and Japan.

Tantalum is used in mobile phones, computers and automotive electronics, as well as in aircraft engines, missile components and GPS systems. Niobium is used in pipelines, rockets and jet engines.

‘Murky supply chain’

Congo produced about 40% of the world’s coltan in 2023, according to the US Geological Survey, with Australia, Canada and Brazil being other major suppliers.

The National Energy Emergency executive order, issued by Trump, highlighted the significance of critical minerals — including tantalum and niobium — and called for securing US access to ensure both "modern life and military preparedness.”

According to a UN report, since seizing Rubaya in April last year, the M23 has imposed taxes on the monthly trade and transport of 120 tonnes of coltan, generating at least $800,000 a month.

The coltan then is exported to Rwanda, UN experts said. But even before M23 seized control of the mine, analysts said that the mineral was sold to Rwanda, the only difference being it was done through Congolese intermediaries.

Experts say that it is not easy to trace how coltan arrives in Western countries.

“The global coltan supply chain is pretty murky,” said Guillaume de Brier, a natural resources researcher at the Antwerp-based International Peace Information Service.

The M23 has previously controlled Rubaya for periods of time, and the UN asserted that, even before the takeover of Goma, the group was facilitating the smuggling of these minerals to Rwanda. Since M23 took control of the mine, Rwanda’s official coltan exports have doubled, according to Rwandan official figures.

TRT Global - DRC crisis pushes global tantalite prices to two-year high

The DRC, the world's leading producer of the mineral that supplies the electronics and aerospace industries, has experienced a surge in violence in recent months.

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Complicated scenes for US

At times the mines were also under control of the Wazalendo, a militia allied with the Congolese army.

Alexis Twagira said he feels some things have improved under M23. “I’ve been working in this mine for 13 years, and I’ve worked under the Wazalendo. When they were here, they would harass us, sometimes taking our minerals and demanding money,” he said.

The UN has accused both the Congolese army and the M23 rebels of human rights abuses.

The DRC is the world’s largest producer of cobalt, a mineral used to make lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles and other products, but US access is complicated by the fact that Chinese companies control 80% of its Congolese production. The DRC also produces gold.

In recent weeks, two US companies opened doors to production in the region. Nathan Trotter, a US firm, signed a letter of intent with Rwanda-based Trinity Metals, which owns Rwanda's largest tin mine. And KoBold Metals, which uses Artificial Intelligence to further energy transition and is backed by billionaire Bill Gates, brokered a deal to buy Australia’s AVZ Minerals’ interest in DRC's Manono lithium deposits.

‘Mobile phones made from our coltan’

Analysts warn that the implementation of a minerals deal in eastern Congo, if one was to materialise, will face many hurdles — especially with US investors largely abandoning the DRC in the last two decades.

If the deal were to include Rubaya, where all mining is currently done manually, US companies would have to contend with both security concerns and a severe lack of infrastructure.

“With coltan, you’re dealing with hundreds of thousands of miners, and not just M23, but other so-called auto-defense armed groups and individuals who rely on mining for survival," said de Brier from the International Peace Information Service.

"You have to build all the infrastructure, you have to start from scratch. You will even have to build the roads.”

Bahati Moïse, a trader who resells coltan from Rubaya’s mines, hopes that, regardless who controls the mines, the workers who labor to extract the minerals will finally be valued as much as the resources themselves.

“The whole country, the whole world knows that phones are made from the coltan mined here, but look at the life we ​​live,” he said. “We can’t continue like this.”