{
  "id": 223623,
  "title": "How Africa can power its trillion-dollar critical minerals revolution",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/06/how-africa-can-power-its-trillion-dollar-critical-minerals-revolution",
  "topic": "culture",
  "section": "Culture",
  "published": "2026-08-06T13:47:04.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Africa Business",
    "slug": "africa-business",
    "url": "https://african.business/2026/08/partner-content/how-africa-can-power-its-trillion-dollar-critical-minerals-revolution"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Africa stands on the brink of a $1 trillion critical minerals revolution, a transformation that could redefine global economies and alliances. The continent's vast reserves of lithium, cobalt, graphite, manganese, rare earth elements, and other strategic minerals position it as a key player in the clean energy transition, advanced manufacturing, and the digital economy. Home to approximately 30% of the world's critical mineral deposits, Africa's potential is undeniable, with nations like the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Guinea leading the pack.\n\nDespite this wealth, Africa captures only a small fraction of the value generated from its mineral resources due to insufficient investment in exploration, processing, infrastructure, and industrial value chains. This extraction model drives jobs, industrial capacities, and technological know-how out of the continent, weakening Africa's bargaining power in global mining value chains. The African Union's 2025 Green Mineral Strategy, structured around four pillars - Advancing Mineral Development, Developing Human and Technological Capabilities, Building Strategic Value Chains, and Promoting Prudent Mineral Stewardship - aims to address these challenges. These pillars focus on attracting investment, building necessary infrastructure, and creating skilled and technologically capable personnel to leverage green mineral opportunities.\n\nHowever, translating this strategy into tangible results remains a significant challenge. Nigeria's Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, emphasizes the need for local processing of mineral resources to create jobs, strengthen industries, and unlock greater economic value. He advocates for the adoption of the Pan-African Resource Reporting Code (PARC) to enable the continent to determine the value of its resources using standards developed by Africans. Similarly, the Ivorian Minister of Mines, Petroleum, and Energy, Mamadou Sangafowa, highlights Africa's readiness to leverage critical minerals as a lever for industrial transformation. The Africa Minerals Strategy Group (AMSG), with 33 member countries, has passed resolutions on the policy of value addition, with several countries implementing bans on the export of raw minerals to force local refining and create domestic jobs. These efforts are supported by investments in infrastructure, geological data, power supply, and mineral processing facilities, all crucial for unlocking Africa's critical minerals potential.",
  "summary": "Africa's vast critical minerals can fuel global industry. At ABIS2026, participants will explore how the continent can reap dividends by shifting from raw extraction to value‑added processing, regional integration and investment.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}