Africa’s critical mineral value chains need to be enhanced to realize their full potential — experts

While Africa’s critical mineral reserves and mineral industry are possibly the largest in the world, if African countries are to harness the full potential of these essential resources, local and sustainable value chains must be established, according to experts.
Home to 30% of the world’s mineral reserves — found in abundance in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Madagascar, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Mali, among other hotspots, Africa has the opportunity to harness its mineral wealth to both transform the energy and economic landscape of the continent and also power the global energy transition. Yet, according to Thaakira Samodien, a strategic content writer at Energy Capital and Power, to tap into the full potential of these vital resources, local and sustainable value chains must be established. This entails implementing policies aimed at stimulating investment, building capacity in skills and infrastructure, and securing financial and technical support from international partners.
For Africa’s mineral resources to translate to economic wealth, the critical mineral value chain needs to be enhanced, with regulatory policies and reforms, advancements in processing and refining capacity and heightened investment in exploration serving as key solutions, says Tylin Van Der Ross from Critical Minerals Africa (CMA). To maximize the opportunity afforded by enhancing the continent’s critical minerals value chain, the African governments need to put more emphasis on enforcing transparency of contracts, strong labor rights, and environmental sustainability, among other key factors, Van Der Ross writes. Establishing sustainable critical raw material value chains in Africa is also one of the key priorities of the European Union’s Africa policy, as evidenced in its AfricaMaVal initiative. Launched in June 2022 and set to run through November 2025, the AfricaMaVal comes as Europe takes a mounting interest in Africa’s critical minerals as an alternative supply to China and Russia.