Africa is at the centre of a growing global race for critical minerals, but the continent faces a familiar challenge: possessing enormous natural wealth without capturing a comparable share of the value generated from it.
Africa holds around 30% of the world’s mineral reserves but accounts for only about 10% of global mineral revenues. The continent is already a major producer of copper, cobalt and manganese, all of which are increasingly important to electric vehicles, renewable energy systems, advanced manufacturing and artificial intelligence infrastructure.
As the United States, Europe and China compete for secure access to these resources, African governments have an opportunity to renegotiate how their minerals are extracted, processed and traded.
The question is whether the continent can turn its mineral advantage into broader industrial development rather than repeating a long established pattern of exporting raw materials while importing higher value products.
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From Raw Materials to Local Processing
One of the clearest ways for African countries to capture more value is by expanding domestic processing.
Indonesia provides an important example. After restricting nickel ore exports, Jakarta encouraged investment in domestic smelting and processing capacity. The policy helped transform Indonesia into a major producer of refined nickel products used by the global battery industry.
Several African governments are now pursuing similar strategies.
Zimbabwe has restricted lithium exports, Guinea has imposed controls on bauxite exports, while the Democratic Republic of Congo has introduced measures affecting cobalt and copper exports. The objective is to encourage companies to process more minerals locally rather than shipping unprocessed resources overseas.
But simply banning exports does not guarantee industrialisation.
Processing facilities require reliable electricity, transport infrastructure, skilled workers, financing and predictable government policy. Without these conditions, higher value processing can become too expensive to compete internationally.
This is particularly important because mineral processing is often a low margin business. A country can possess enormous reserves and still struggle to build a profitable processing industry if electricity, logistics and infrastructure costs remain high.
Infrastructure Could Change the Equation
Angola illustrates why infrastructure and geography can be just as important as mineral reserves.
The country is developing an aluminium smelter at the port of Barra do Dande despite lacking domestic bauxite resources and the capacity to produce alumina. Its advantage instead comes from its deep water port, strategic location and access to infrastructure and industrial facilities.
This highlights a broader opportunity for African economies. Countries do not necessarily need to possess every stage of a mineral supply chain themselves. Regional infrastructure and trade links can allow different economies to specialise in different stages of production.
The Lobito Corridor is an important example.
The railway network connects the mineral rich Copperbelt in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia with Angola’s Atlantic coast. The project is backed by the United States and European partners and is designed to provide an alternative route to existing trade networks that have historically connected the region with China’s manufacturing sector.
The corridor could significantly reduce the time required to transport minerals from central Africa to international markets.
China has responded by committing $1.4 billion to modernise the Tanzania Zambia Railway, or TAZARA, which connects Zambia with Tanzania’s port of Dar es Salaam.
The competing infrastructure projects demonstrate how Africa’s mineral wealth has become part of a wider geopolitical contest between China and Western powers.
The China Factor
China already occupies a dominant position across many parts of the global critical minerals supply chain.
Chinese companies have significant interests in African mining operations, particularly in copper and cobalt. Much of the material extracted in central Africa ultimately enters Chinese processing and manufacturing networks before being incorporated into products ranging from electric vehicles to air conditioning systems.
Western governments are increasingly seeking alternatives.
The Lobito Corridor is therefore about more than transporting minerals. It represents an attempt to create new supply chains that reduce dependence on China while increasing Western access to African resources.
For African governments, this competition creates negotiating space.
Rather than becoming dependent on either China or the West, African countries could use competing external interests to secure investment in infrastructure, processing capacity, technology transfer and workforce development.
But that requires governments to negotiate from a position of coordination and long term strategy rather than simply competing with each other for foreign investment.
Beyond Mining: Building Economic Corridors
The most promising aspect of projects such as the Lobito Corridor is that they can connect mineral development with broader economic activity.
The corridor is intended to support agricultural, industrial and technology hubs along its roughly 1,800 kilometre route. Investments are also targeting trade facilitation, vocational training and local employment.
Early developments show how such infrastructure can benefit sectors beyond mining.
Angolan agricultural products, including avocados, are increasingly moving through trade networks connected to the corridor. This demonstrates how infrastructure initially justified by mineral exports can create wider commercial opportunities.
That distinction matters.
Africa’s mineral wealth will have limited developmental impact if mines simply function as isolated export enclaves. Mining can generate government revenue without creating substantial domestic industrial capacity if the equipment, processing, expertise and manufactured products remain controlled elsewhere.
The objective therefore cannot simply be to export more minerals.
It must be to build economic ecosystems around them.
Bringing Artisanal Miners Into the Economy
Another major challenge is the role of artisanal and small scale mining.
An estimated 10 million people are directly involved in artisanal and small scale mining across Africa, with many more depending on the sector for their livelihoods.
These miners are particularly important in countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, where artisanal mining has long been associated with cobalt production.
The sector faces serious problems, including dangerous working conditions, child labour, environmental damage and exploitation by middlemen. In conflict affected areas, mining can also become connected to armed groups and forced labour.
But simply criminalising artisanal mining does not solve these problems.
It can instead push millions of workers further into informal markets while depriving governments of revenue and making responsible supply chains harder to establish.
Formalisation offers a more sustainable alternative.
The Democratic Republic of Congo has been attempting to strengthen regulation of artisanal cobalt production and bring miners into more controlled supply chains. New arrangements involving mining companies and regulators could help improve traceability while providing miners with greater access to formal markets.
For Western companies seeking alternatives to Chinese dominated supply chains, this could become increasingly important.
What Comes Next?
Africa’s critical minerals opportunity will ultimately depend on whether governments can move beyond resource extraction and develop the infrastructure and institutions needed to capture more value domestically.
That means investing in processing, electricity, transport, skills and regional trade while creating stable regulatory frameworks that can attract long term investment.
It also means coordinating mineral policies across borders.
Countries that possess resources, ports, processing facilities and transport networks can gain more by developing regional supply chains than by attempting to build complete industries independently.
The growing competition between China and Western countries could provide African governments with additional leverage, but only if that competition is converted into concrete economic gains.
Implications and Analysis
Africa’s critical minerals moment is significant because it coincides with a fundamental transformation in the global economy.
Copper, cobalt, manganese, lithium and other minerals are becoming strategic inputs for technologies that will shape energy, transportation, defence and artificial intelligence. This means African mineral producers have something that major economic powers increasingly need.
But resource wealth alone does not create economic power.
Africa’s previous experience demonstrates the danger of remaining at the bottom of global value chains. Exporting raw materials can generate revenue while leaving the most profitable stages of production elsewhere.
The critical minerals race offers an opportunity to change that model, but the opportunity will not automatically translate into development.
The most effective strategy may be to use mineral resources as a foundation for wider industrialisation. Processing facilities, transport corridors and energy infrastructure can create employment and connect mining with agriculture, manufacturing and technology.
The geopolitical competition between China and the West could help accelerate this process. Both sides have strong incentives to secure African minerals, giving governments greater bargaining power than they have traditionally possessed.
But Africa’s strongest position would not be to simply choose between competing external powers. It would be to use their competition to secure better terms from all partners while developing its own industrial capacity.
The ultimate test will therefore not be how much mineral Africa exports. It will be how much economic value remains on the continent after those minerals leave the ground.
If African countries can build processing capacity, strengthen regional infrastructure and bring informal miners into formal supply chains, the critical minerals boom could become more than another resource rush. It could become an opportunity to rewrite the economic relationship between Africa and the rest of the world.
With information from Reuters.
