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The Story

The fight for the "trillion dollar maps" - The Saturday Story

17 min25 april 2026

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.

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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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