Africa’s Critical Minerals: Who Gets the Value?

Africa is sitting on some of the world's most important resources for the energy transition.

The continent has significant deposits of lithium, cobalt, nickel, graphite, copper, manganese, platinum group metals and rare earth elements. The African Development Bank (AfDB) identifies 12 critical minerals that could play an important role in Africa's inclusive growth and development, including copper, cobalt, lithium, graphite, manganese, nickel and platinum group metals. AfDB, A Dozen Critical Minerals for Africa's Inclusive Growth and Development.

But having the minerals is only one part of the equation.

The bigger question is: who captures the economic value created from them?

Africa has the minerals. The value is elsewhere.

Demand for critical minerals is accelerating as countries expand electric vehicles, batteries, renewable energy and electricity infrastructure.

According to the International Energy Agency's (IEA) 2025 report, Stepping Up the Value Chain in Africa, the combined market value of refined copper, lithium, nickel, cobalt, graphite and rare earth elements exceeded US$230 billion in 2024. IEA, Stepping Up the Value Chain in Africa.

Yet Africa captures only a small share of the value created further down the clean-energy technology supply chain.

The IEA estimates that Africa captures less than 1% of the value generated from manufacturing clean-energy technologies and their components, despite supplying around 75% of global manganese, 70% of cobalt and nearly 20% of copper.

That creates a striking paradox.

Africa can be essential to the global energy transition without capturing a proportionate share of the wealth it generates.

The journey from mine to market

The problem becomes clearer when the mineral's journey is considered.

A mineral can leave an African mine as ore or concentrate and then move through processing, refining, component manufacturing and eventually into products such as batteries, electric vehicles or renewable-energy technologies.

Every stage can create additional economic value, skilled employment, technological capabilities and industrial capacity.

Africa remains heavily concentrated toward the extraction end of this chain.

The IEA identifies several opportunities for African countries to move further into mineral processing and manufacturing. East Africa, for example, has potential in spherical graphite production for battery anodes, while the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia could expand their role in processed copper and cobalt. South Africa and Gabon also have opportunities around manganese processing.

The issue, therefore, is not simply whether Africa should mine its critical minerals.

It is whether the continent can move further along the value chain.

Africa is changing the conversation

African policymakers are increasingly recognising this distinction.

The African Union's Africa Green Minerals Strategy, adopted in 2025, places value addition, sustainable mineral development and stronger African mineral value chains at the centre of its approach. The strategy argues that Africa should use its mineral resources to support structural transformation rather than remaining primarily an exporter of raw materials. African Union, Africa Green Minerals Strategy.

The African Development Bank has made a similar argument. Its work on critical minerals links mineral development with industrial policy, infrastructure, regional integration and economic diversification. The bank's position is increasingly clear: Africa needs to move from simply possessing mineral resources to building industries around them. AfDB, Critical Minerals for Africa's Inclusive Growth and Development.

That changes the policy conversation.

The objective is no longer simply:

How much can we extract?

It becomes:

How much value can we retain?

But beneficiation is easier said than done

There is a major obstacle.

Processing minerals requires reliable electricity, transport infrastructure, water, skilled workers, technology, financing and access to markets.

The IEA identifies infrastructure gaps, limited access to finance and shortages of technical capabilities among the barriers preventing African countries from moving further into critical-mineral value chains.

This is particularly important because mineral processing can be energy-intensive.

A government can require mining companies to process minerals domestically, but if electricity is unreliable, logistics are expensive and financing is difficult to obtain, the policy could make projects less competitive without necessarily creating viable industries.

That is why beneficiation should not mean processing for the sake of processing.

It should mean building industries that can compete.

Regional cooperation could change the equation

Another challenge is scale.

Many African countries may not have the domestic market, infrastructure or capital required to develop complete mineral value chains independently.

Regional cooperation could therefore become increasingly important.

The Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia, for example, possess major copper and cobalt resources. Their geographic proximity creates an opportunity to develop regional processing and manufacturing capabilities rather than treating mineral development purely as a national extraction project.

The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) could strengthen this opportunity by creating a larger market for processed minerals, components and manufactured products.

This is where the critical-minerals conversation becomes bigger than mining.

It becomes an industrialisation strategy.

The battery opportunity

Battery manufacturing is one of the clearest examples.

Cobalt, lithium, graphite, nickel and manganese are important inputs across different battery chemistries and related supply chains. Africa has significant resources of several of these minerals.

The IEA identifies opportunities for African countries to develop battery-related processing and manufacturing, while the AfDB has highlighted regional value-chain opportunities involving countries such as Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

But mineral deposits alone will not create a battery industry.

Africa will need competitive electricity, infrastructure, technology, skilled workers, financing and reliable markets.

The IEA therefore warns that Africa's mineral resources are not automatically a guarantee of downstream industrial development. Policy choices and investment conditions will determine whether the opportunity materialises. IEA, Stepping Up the Value Chain in Africa.

The environmental question cannot be ignored

There is another dimension to the debate.

Moving up the value chain does not automatically make mining sustainable.

More processing can mean greater energy and water demand, additional industrial waste and potentially larger environmental footprints.

That makes the environmental governance of critical-mineral development just as important as the economic argument.

The African Union's Green Minerals Strategy therefore connects value addition with responsible and sustainable mineral development. Africa's challenge is not simply to develop mineral industries, but to ensure that the economic benefits do not come at the expense of communities, ecosystems and future generations.

This is where sustainability disclosure, climate-risk management and responsible mining practices become increasingly relevant to the critical-minerals conversation.

So, who gets the value?

This is ultimately the question Africa needs to answer.

The energy transition is creating enormous demand for the minerals beneath African soil.

But mineral wealth does not automatically become economic development.

Value is created through what happens after extraction.

If Africa continues exporting primarily raw or minimally processed minerals, much of the manufacturing, technology, intellectual property and high-value employment associated with the energy transition will remain elsewhere.

If African countries can develop competitive processing and manufacturing ecosystems, critical minerals could become something much bigger: a platform for industrialisation.

The African Development Bank has cited estimates suggesting that investment in local processing and battery manufacturing through regional hubs could generate US$32 billion in additional annual exports, US$24 billion in additional annual GDP and 2.3 million jobs. AfDB, African Economic Outlook 2025.

Those numbers represent an opportunity, not a guaranteed outcome.

The difference will depend on whether African countries can build the infrastructure, skills, capital, technology and regional markets needed to turn mineral resources into competitive industries.

Africa has what the global energy transition needs.

The strategic question is whether the continent will once again supply the raw materials for someone else's industrial revolution, or use its critical minerals to build more of the industries itself.

The future of Africa's critical minerals will not be determined only by what lies underground. It will be determined by what Africa builds above it.