- As the world transitions from fossil fuels to green energy, increasing numbers of investors are seeking opportunities in Africa in a bid to secure access to the critical minerals needed for that transition.
- Kenyan President William Ruto has called for a new economic model that builds industrial value chains within Africa and avoids repeating the exploitative patterns that defined mineral extraction in the past.
- As several African countries tighten mining laws and negotiate new deals with foreign investors, civil society groups and researchers warn that the global rush for Africa’s critical minerals risks reproducing extractive models that have historically fueled environmental destruction, displacement and inequality and provided little by way of economic benefits for Africans.
- Countries with contested histories of natural resource extraction in Africa, including France, are increasingly acknowledging that critical minerals and rare earth elements should be processed locally on the continent. French President Emmanuel Macron has argued that Europeans are not the “predators of this century.”
Kenyan President William Ruto has called for a new economic model for Africa’s green transition, warning that the continent must not repeat the historical pattern of exporting raw materials without local value addition.
Speaking at the Africa Forward Summit in Nairobi, co-hosted by France and Kenya, Ruto said Africa’s growing reserves of critical minerals, vital to the global clean-energy economy, must be developed in a way that directly benefits African citizens.
“We cannot accept a future in which Africa simply exports raw green minerals while industrial value addition, advanced manufacturing and technological innovation take place elsewhere. That model belongs to the past,” Ruto told delegates on May 12.
“Green industrialization presents our continent with an opportunity not only to contribute meaningfully to global climate solutions but also to create jobs, expand manufacturing capacity, strengthen exports, deepen regional value chains and accelerate structural economic transformation.”
Africa holds more than 30% of the world’s critical minerals — including cobalt, lithium, manganese and rare earth elements vital for producing batteries and solar panels and building wind turbines — according to the African Green Mineral Strategy. As the world transitions from fossil fuels to renewable energy, experts argue demand will surge. Estimates from the African Union show that demand for these minerals is set to double by 2040.
The Nairobi summit brings together leaders, investors and climate policy experts from across Europe and Africa.
Ruto emphasized that Africa possesses some of the greatest renewable energy potential anywhere in the world, from geothermal resources to immense opportunities in solar, wind, hydroelectric power and green hydrogen. As a result, he called on Africa to lead the energy transition.
“Africa has a historic opportunity not merely to participate in the global energy transition but to help lead it,” he argued.
“Africa must become a globally competitive industrial hub powered by clean energy, modern infrastructure, innovation and strategic investment partnerships.”
Rush for Africa’s critical minerals
Foreign mining companies have been rushing to acquire licenses and invest in exploratory activities in Africa, a 2024 study titled “The Race for Critical Minerals in Africa: A Blessing or Another Resource Curse?” found. Authors of the study, published in Resources Policy, argued that the rush for lithium, for example, largely serves the geostrategic and economic interests of Western countries and China, while leaving behind socioecological impacts, including biodiversity loss and community displacement, and giving rise to new forms of illegality in the resource sector.
A recent critical minerals deal between the Democratic Republic of Congo and the United States has also been criticized by civil society organizations.
“This is a race for minerals at any cost,” Jean-Claude Mputu, a spokesperson for the coalition of civil society organizations Le Congo n’est pas à vendre (“The Congo is not for sale”), told Mongabay earlier this year.
“In this race,” Mputu said, “African states and all countries that have minerals are the big losers because no promises have been made on human rights. None. Human rights, justice and environmental protection are the biggest blind spots in these agreements.”
The Democratic Republic of Congo holds an estimated $24 trillion in untapped mineral deposits, making it one of the richest countries in the world in terms of natural resources. About 70% of the cobalt used in electric vehicles and smartphones is mined in the DRC.
A 2023 Mongabay report documented how the rush for clean-energy minerals in Africa risks repeating harmful extractivist models. Citing a Global Witness investigation into lithium mining projects in Zimbabwe, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Namibia, the report suggested that the sector appears to reproduce the same extractive model that has impoverished African countries for centuries.
In recent years, Russia has also emerged as a new player in the mining sector in Africa. A 2023 article by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace found that in the Central African Republic, for example, a Russia-linked group providing security support to the government had also gained access to lucrative mining assets.
With growing investor interest in the mining sector and increasing concern over environmental harm, calls are mounting to modernize mining legislation in ways that safeguard investor confidence while ensuring tangible benefits for local economies.
Ghana, Africa’s top gold producer, has revised its mining laws. Madagascar is among the latest set of countries to make changes to its mining legislation. Reporting by DW also notes that Mali, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Tanzania have introduced changes to their critical minerals policies.
Changing partnerships?
France remains one of the European countries with the deepest historical ties to Africa. Nearly two dozen African countries were colonized by France, and that relationship has often been contentious, including around the extraction and management of natural resources.
But the current French government argues that the relationship is beginning to evolve. In an interview with The Africa Report on May 7 ahead of the Africa Forward Summit, French President Emmanuel Macron argued that France should no longer be viewed through the lens of past extractive relations.
“The paradox is that we are not the predators of this century,” President Macron told The Africa Report. “Europeans may once have been. But they are not now.”
He acknowledged that while France needs critical minerals and rare earth elements, it also understands that African countries want to extract and process those resources domestically.
That position was echoed by a group of experts at the Washington, D.C.- based think tank, the Brookings Institution, in a January 2026 article arguing that “the critical minerals race is a unique opportunity to promote Africa as a reliable partner to countries that need these resources.”
“The past mistakes of resource extraction without sustainable development, untransparent arrangements, and missed opportunities must not be repeated,” the authors wrote.
Banner image: Kenyan President William Ruto speaks during an event at the recently-concluded Africa Forward Summit in Nairobi. Image courtesy of the Presidency of Kenya.
Citation:
Boafo, J., Obodai, J., Stemn, E., & Nkrumah, P. N. (2024). The race for critical minerals in Africa: A blessing or another resource curse? Resources Policy, 93, 105046. doi:10.1016/j.resourpol.2024.105046
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