A Belgian museum and a US mining firm are in dispute over the digitization of a valuable mining archive from the Democratic Republic of Congo, with implications for the global supply of critical minerals.

Just a few kilometers from Brussels, the cellars of the Royal Museum for Central Africa hold one of the world’s most valuable mining archives. Colonial-era maps and surveys had previously detailed minerals like cobalt, lithium, coltan, and tungsten, essential for the digital and energy transition. Now, a battle over digitization is unfolding, with these documents literally worth their weight in gold. KoBold Metals, backed by Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, is looking to AI in order to locate new depo...