President Donald Trump is known to be fond of shiny objects. On Wednesday, Aug. 6, in the Oval Office, Apple CEO Tim Cook sought to sway Trump against tariffing his company’s imports with a gold and glass plaque inscribed just for him. Impressed by the gift as Trump clearly was, a more consequential shiny object that has caught his attention is KoBold Metals, a new mining tech company backed by Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos.
The Trump administration recently helped KoBold sew up a deal to venture into the lawless hinterlands of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Arranged, according to KoBold, by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the State Department’s senior adviser for Africa, Massad Boulos, the deal will see KoBold acquire Australia’s AVZ Minerals’ interest in the Roche Dure lithium deposit located at Manono.
