FT: Kenya's sacred Mrima Hill sits on a rare-earth fortune the US, China and Australia all want

Seven mining consortiums, American, Chinese and Australian, are now shortlisted to dig into Mrima Hill, a sacred kaya on Kenya's coast holding a $62bn stash of niobium, neodymium and radioactive thorium. For the Digo people who've guarded the site for generations, it's not a resource, it's their Tree of Souls. The stakes stretch well beyond Kenya: as Beijing tightens its grip on 90% of global rare-earth supply, this is the kind of deposit South Africa's own underdeveloped critical minerals sector, sitting on similar geology, will be watched against as Pretoria tries to court the same Western supply-chain money..By William Wallis at Mrima Hill.Mrima Hill is shrouded in dense forest canopy, which rises up from green fields of sugar cane, banana groves and cassava plots close to Kenya’s Indian Ocean coast.For US consortiums in high-stakes competition with Chinese and Australian companies to mine the area, the hill and neighbouring volcanic outcrops bear a trove of rare-earth and critical minerals essential for defence and energy technology.The deposits were valued at $62bn by one former prospector in 2013, though that figure did not account for the huge cost of extraction and processing.After months of anticipation, Kenya’s ministry of mining on Thursday selected a shortlist of seven groups to compete for the right to develop the site.To the Digo people who have inhabited the area for hundreds of years and now find themselves bystanders in a geostrategic tug of war, the hill is not only home. It is also a sacred site, known as a kaya.“The community is resistant because they fear for their livelihoods, they are worried about title deeds for their land, and because of the shrine,” said Jermaine Kashi, a development expert in the area..If you have watched Avatar, James Cameron’s blockbuster about the planetary quest for “unobtanium” after humans have depleted Earth’s resources, Mrima Hill equals the “Tree of Souls”: a sacred site where the ancestral spirits and cultural memories of the Digo people reside.“It is not like a church you can break up. It is impossible to move,” said Kassim Suleiman Mnyeto, keeper of the 18 kayas in Kenya’s Kwale County, where the Digo set up fortified forest groves.The kayas were overrun when the British sought to subjugate Kenya’s coastal tribes in the early 20th century. But they have been protected as national monuments since 1992.Local people, who include many other ethnic groups farming the area, are worried but appear conditionally open to the prospect of it being mined.Tensions are rising, however, as outside politicians seek to buy land cheaply, according to Kashi, hoping to cash in on compensation claims. Local personalities are jostling to lead negotiations over future development funds.At one point, a gang wielding machetes swept in on motorbikes to disrupt a meeting with the farmers. Another group of villagers blocked access to the hill.“We are trying to come together with a single voice,” said Suleiman Mwarizo, chair of the Digo Community Resource Trust, which has been registered to represent community interests. But he said there were malicious outside actors “actively trying to divide and weaken us”..Sensitivity around the fate of the Mrima Hill Kaya, which, according to a 2025 Kenyan geological survey, sits on top of huge deposits of niobium, which is used to fortify steel, neodymium — used in magnets — and yttrium for superconductors, will be critical to keeping the peace.“We do not know what methods the mining companies are going to use: whether they are going to destroy the hill or go cleverly underneath,” said Ali Chirau Mwakwere, a spokesman for the wider Mijikenda community, of which the Digo forms a part.Mwakwere, a former mines minister who penned an early draft of the 2016 Mining Act, said that, in the event of an opencast mine engulfing the shrine, “World War 3 would break out”.The seven shortlisted consortiums waited a tense month for the result of a tender process that slimmed down prospective miners from 13, and now have until October 1 to submit more detailed plans before a final winner is announced.The stakes are high. China is seeking to guard its 90 per cent share of the global market in rare earths and family-owned mining group Jinan Yuxiao made the shortlist. Beijing has increasingly restricted access to a wide range of critical minerals since 2023 as part of an escalating trade war with the US, which under Donald Trump is aggressively trying to catch up.An Australian consortium that includes RareX and Iluka, which is building one of the only rare-earth processing plants outside China, has also made the final seven.US company, ReElement was selected in one of several successful US consortiums. It plans to develop supply chains for magnets used in US military systems with Vulcan Elements, in which Donald Trump Jr’s investment firm 1789 Capital has a stake.“We wait for the outcome,” said Harry Kimtai, the top civil servant at the Ministry of Mining, in a guarded response to questions about the pressure the Kenyan government has come under from abroad..Villagers near the site are in a similar state of nervous anticipation. There has been little outreach from the government beyond a letter earlier this year promising consultations.The outcome could strip the people, estimated by local leaders to number about 150,000 within the concession boundary, of everything they know and own. It could leave them disinherited and their lush homeland a moonscape of toxic waste. One of the metals present — thorium — is radioactive.Those fears are founded partly on the experience of villagers displaced from a nearby mineral sands project. Kashi and others said mining there was preceded by a land grab by officials in Nairobi that ultimately deprived the community of royalties meant for local development.With foresight, local leaders hope this time will be better. The mine could open a new chapter of opportunity, jobs for legions of underemployed young people, and give a somewhat forgotten corner of Kenya a big role in national development..Read more:.Miningweb: US and Australia team up on rare earths to take on China.Justus Mwero, chair of the Mrima Hill farm owners’ association, said his group supported development of the mine provided certain provisions are met.These included government help with accessing title deeds to land, market value payments upfront for anyone displaced, enforced environmental safeguards — especially around radioactive waste — and a transparent benefit-sharing mechanism for royalties.“We need clear information about what will happen to our land . . . and we want livelihoods to improve,” said Mwakwere. “There needs to be a lot of consultation.”.© 2026 The Financial Times Ltd..Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. 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FT: Kenya's sacred Mrima Hill sits on a rare-earth fortune the US, China and Australia all want

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