The Democratic Republic of Congo opened its first gold refining facility, joining other African nations seeking to capture more of the mining supply chain.
Several regional nations have recently become key targets in a great power competition between the US and China for greater control of the continent’s resources. Some are fearful, however, that an old pattern of extraction without development may be settling in.
In response, governments across the continent have courted foreign investment to help build their manufacturing base, including for mineral and metal refining.
Africa will only “win” if it can build the “regional infrastructure and value chains that turn mineral wealth into shared prosperity,” a UN official argued in The Africa Report.
