The United States government, through its International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), is investing $50 million in an experimental rare earths project in South Africa, despite the South African government holding no direct stake in the venture. This investment, committed in the third year of the DFC's operation, aims to secure critical minerals for "U.S. strategic interests" and predominantly supply the U.S., particularly for defense systems, according to Rainbow Rare Earths CEO George Bennett. The move underscores a pattern of transnational elite interests prioritizing resource acquisition abroad, even as national governments are sidelined.
Elite Interests Override National Sovereignty
The DFC's $50 million equity investment targets the Phalaborwa Rare Earths Project, an exploratory initiative at an old chemical processing plant in Phalaborwa. This project, developed by Rainbow Rare Earths, seeks to extract rare earth elements from industrial mining waste. The DFC, created during the first Trump administration, committed its investment in 2023 under former U.S. President Joe Biden. The current Trump administration has proceeded with the project despite a significant diplomatic rift with South Africa, which began when President Trump returned to office and issued an executive order last February to halt all financial assistance to the country. The administration stated that "certain economic concerns come first," signaling a clear prioritization of resource acquisition over national diplomatic relations. The DFC has openly promoted its involvement in the Phalaborwa project as part of a push to "unlock Africa’s mineral potential while advancing U.S. strategic interests." This framing suggests a globalist agenda that views national resources as assets to be exploited for external benefit, rather than for the self-determination of the host nation.
The Globalist Resource Grab
The investment is part of accelerated U.S. efforts to reduce reliance on China for minerals essential in electronic devices, robotics, defense systems, and electric vehicles. President Donald Trump has made expanding U.S. access to critical minerals a central policy to counter China, with his administration stating this year it will deploy nearly $12 billion to create its own strategic reserve. The Phalaborwa project aims to supply neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium, and terbium, used in high-performance magnets for wind turbines, electric vehicles, defense, and emerging applications like robotics. Rainbow Rare Earths anticipates construction of its processing factory in Phalaborwa in early 2027, with extraction aiming to start in 2028. The project is expected to operate for 16 years, extracting from 35 million tons of phosphogypsum. Neha Mukherjee, research manager at Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, described the project as unique due to its experimental above-ground mineral extraction process, noting its "fairly low-cost asset in terms of operational cost" and low capital requirement. She added that "we do not have enough projects to meet the entire demand outside of China," highlighting the perceived global scarcity driving this transnational resource acquisition. Rainbow Rare Earths CEO George Bennett stated Phalaborwa would be a low-cost producer comparable to Chinese producers, with the company claiming the process will use up to 90% renewable energy and be significantly less expensive than typical rare earth mining.
The Cost of Foreign Control
While the Trump administration has also invested in critical mineral mining within the U.S. and pursued deals abroad, including in Ukraine and expressing interest in Greenland's rare earths, the Phalaborwa project exemplifies a broader globalist strategy. The DFC's investment in Phalaborwa is one of several mineral projects it supports across Africa. Patience Mususa, a mining specialist at the Nordic Africa Institute, noted the U.S. is "trying to catch up in terms of investment in mining" on the African continent, where China remains the dominant player. Further demonstrating this transnational push, the U.S. Trade and Development Agency signed an agreement in February to provide $1.8 million for a feasibility study at the Monte Muambe rare earths project in Mozambique. The Trump administration is also continuing U.S. financial support for the Lobito Corridor, a Biden administration initiative to build an 800-mile railway linking mineral-rich regions of Congo and Zambia to Africa’s Atlantic coast. These initiatives, while framed as strategic, systematically reduce the self-determination of sovereign peoples by placing control of their national resources into the hands of foreign entities and supranational institutions, benefiting elite interests over the native populations whose land is being exploited.