Two Chinese companies have withdrawn from the race to develop Kenya's Mrima Hill critical minerals deposit in Kwale County, leaving three US-linked groups among the five remaining bidders, Mining Cabinet Secretary Hassan Joho has said.

Joho told Reuters in an interview that the government expects to award the project soon. "Within the next two to three weeks we should be able to award Mrima Hills to the successful bidder," he said, according to Kenyans.co.ke, which carried the interview on Saturday.

The firms that dropped out are Hunan Research Institute for Nonferrous Metals and Jinan Yuxiao Group Co. Ltd. Joho said he did not know why they left, and their reasons have not been made public.

Who is still in the race

Five bids were submitted on October 21, according to the reports:

  • Meridian Mineral Holdings, an American consortium that includes engineering giant Fluor Corp and Tetra Tech.
  • Frontier Minerals LLC, an American group that includes ReElement Technologies.
  • Mrima Earth, a US-linked consortium led by Critical Metals Corp.
  • An Australian tie-up of RareX and Iluka Resources.
  • Gem of Dreams, a Kenyan-British joint venture.

Joho said the government had not been in direct talks with any bidder and insisted Kenya was under no pressure from either Washington or Beijing, adding that the decision would be guided by national interest. Reuters reported that the Chinese firms had shown interest in other Kenyan mining projects, and Joho confirmed that one of them had put in a separate bid elsewhere, without giving details.

What is at stake

Mrima Hill, about 65km from Mombasa, is believed to hold one of the continent's most significant deposits of rare earth elements and niobium, materials used in electronics, electric vehicle motors and aerospace components. Preliminary estimates cited in local reports put the value of the minerals at roughly $62 billion (about Sh8 trillion), although that reflects the worth of the resource in the ground rather than revenue the State would earn. The government has yet to establish the project's full economic viability.

The hill is also a protected forest and sacred site for local communities, and earlier attempts to mine it stalled amid licensing disputes, which means whichever firm wins will face close scrutiny over environmental safeguards and local benefit sharing.

A wider contest

The bidding comes as the United States seeks to cut its reliance on China, which dominates global processing of rare earths. President William Ruto said in June that Kenya was close to a critical minerals agreement with the US, and Washington has since pledged support for local mineral processing. Beijing, for its part, has pitched deeper mining cooperation with African states, saying the continent should retain ownership of and benefit from its minerals.

The exit of the two Chinese bidders tilts the field towards Western-backed groups, but Joho maintained that the award will be decided on Kenya's interests alone.

Photos: Government of Kenya via Wikimedia Commons (CS Hassan Joho, public domain); Tmy350 via Wikimedia Commons (rare earth mine, CC BY-SA 4.0). Thumbnail design: HAMASTA MEDIA.