Keypoints:
- Global rivalry gives Africa greater leverage
- Regional value chains must replace raw exports
- Energy and finance will determine industrialisation
AFRICA’S growing importance to the global critical-minerals economy has brought a surge of foreign interest. Washington is backing transport corridors, energy systems and supply-chain partnerships. Beijing already dominates much of the global refining and processing landscape. Europe and Gulf states are also seeking access.
Africa’s critical minerals strategy should not be reduced to choosing between the United States and China. The real task is to use external competition to build regional industries instead of accepting another generation of extraction corridors that move raw materials abroad.
That question shaped the Ministerial Forum on Critical Minerals, Value Chains and Beneficiation held in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, on July 10, 2026. The African Development Bank brought together ministers, investors and continental institutions to consider how Africa could capture more value from its mineral wealth.
A contest shaped by foreign priorities
China’s approach combines state-backed finance, rapid infrastructure delivery, long-term mineral access and deep control of processing capacity. The emerging American model places greater emphasis on private investment, guarantees, transparent regulation and diversified supply chains.
Those differences matter, but neither model automatically puts African industrialisation first.
China’s investments have expanded production and connected deposits to global markets. Yet much of the higher-value refining, component manufacturing and technology development still takes place outside Africa.
The United States wants to reduce its dependence on China-dominated supply chains. The International Energy Agency says China leads refining for 19 of the 20 strategic minerals it examined, with an average market share of about 70 percent.
Africa must ensure that foreign diversification does not simply create new channels through which its resources leave the continent.
Washington’s offer has substance
In December 2025, the US International Development Finance Corporation reached financial close on its previously announced loan of up to $553m for the Lobito Atlantic Railway.
The project is intended to rehabilitate a roughly 1,300-kilometre railway and mineral port linking Angola’s Atlantic coast with areas near the DRC border.
The corridor is already carrying DRC copper and is intended to connect mineral-producing regions in the DRC and Zambia to Angola’s Atlantic coast. Africa Briefing has examined how the US-backed Lobito Corridor is challenging China’s established infrastructure networks.
Washington has also supported a $300m regional energy compact with Cote d’Ivoire to modernise the electricity grid and strengthen regional power trading.
Railways, ports and reliable electricity are essential to industrialisation.
But infrastructure alone does not determine who captures value. A railway can support an African manufacturing cluster, or simply move minerals faster to foreign refineries. The outcome depends on the industrial conditions attached to investment.
Africa’s strategy already exists
Hanan Morsy, deputy executive secretary and chief economist of the UN Economic Commission for Africa, said Africa holds about 30 percent of global critical-mineral reserves but captures less than five percent of the associated value added.
In her official opening remarks, she called for Africa to move beyond isolated national beneficiation plans and build integrated regional value chains under the AfCFTA.
Battery and clean-technology industries need more than minerals. They require reliable electricity, transport, specialised chemicals, skilled workers, common standards, finance and large markets.
Few African countries can provide every element alone. Regional specialisation could combine minerals, affordable power, engineering expertise, ports and financial services across borders.
