The fight for the "trillion dollar maps" - The Saturday Story
4/25/202617 min
Hidden in a quiet Belgian archive, century-old colonial maps of the Democratic Republic of Congo may hold the key to an estimated $24 trillion in untapped minerals. Now the United States, backed by Trump, together with the likes of Jeff Bezos, want them. The curators, however, are in no hurry to hand them over.
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Written by: Madeleine Spence, deputy editor for News Review, The Sunday Times.
Read by: Olivia Case.
Host: Luke Jones.
Producer: Dave Creasey.
We want to hear from you - email: thestory@thetimes.com
Read more: The $24trn question: who owns these 100-year-old mining maps?
Clips: DW, BBC.
Photo: Getty Images, The Sunday Times.
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Transcript preview
First 90 secondsLuke Jones· Host0:00
[gentle music] From The Times and The Sunday Times, this is The Story. I'm Luke Jones. [upbeat music] Hidden in a quiet Belgian archive, a century-old set of colonial maps of the Democratic Republic of Congo might hold the key to $24 trillion in untapped minerals. As you can imagine, lots of people are very interested in these maps, and in the paper this week, deputy editor for the News Review section at The Sunday Times, Maddy Spence, has published a really intriguing piece about the high-stakes battle underway between governments and billionaires to try and get their hands on these maps. But the curators at the archive are in no hurry to help at all, and it throws up some big questions. Who really owns the past? Who gets to profit from it? We asked our producer, Olivia Case, to read Maddy's piece.
Olivia Case0:59
[upbeat music] Far beneath the extravagant topiary, rolling lawns, and vast lake surrounding a former royal palace on the outskirts of Brussels, a handful of academics go about their daily business. Tucked away