Yinka’s view
Next week’s inaugural critical minerals summit in Washington marks the White House’s latest attempt to build a counterweight to China’s dominance of African mineral supply chains.
DR Congo President Félix Tshisekedi is expected to attend as Washington and Kinshasa work on the details of a strategic minerals partnership. Ministers from Guinea, Kenya, and Zambia are also on the guest list, according to people familiar with the plans, with more confirmations expected in the coming days.
Announced by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a post on X, the event follows earlier initiatives on critical minerals launched by the Biden administration such as the Minerals Security Partnership. But the future of those prior efforts are uncertain: “These initiatives were launched with a lot of fanfare, but many of the projects are now sitting in limbo,” said Zainab Usman, a senior research scholar at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy.
It is clear that critical minerals, which are essential for running many of the world’s most important advanced technologies from electric vehicle batteries to data centers for artificial intelligence, are vital to the Trump administration. It is one of few sectors that were left exempt from sweeping new tariffs introduced last year, noted Usman.
But for African governments, the central challenge is realizing ambitions to move beyond only exporting raw minerals to processing and refining them, too. Many mineral-rich countries now want economic backing to move up the value chain. At the same time, the US under President Donald Trump — apparently drawing lessons from China’s grip on downstream processing — is exploring how to secure its own position in that part of the supply chain, including through pacts that would encourage American companies to invest.
The opportunity is real, said Tony Carroll, a board member of Mining Indaba, the international mining conference taking place in Cape Town next month. “If the US wants dedicated supply, that has to come with something — security support, infrastructure, or both,” he said. “That’s where the real negotiations are.”
Notable
- China’s critical minerals strategy has been defined by a high risk tolerance, The Africa Center for Strategic Studies noted, allowing state-owned enterprises to absorb losses over decades and therefore dominate markets, including in politically unstable regions.