Africa's Critical Minerals Are a Huge Economic Opportunity - G20 Framework Sets Out Ways to Seize It
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As global investment accelerates in clean-energy technologies, minerals such as lithium, cobalt and manganese are becoming increasingly strategic, and Africa holds large reserves that are still largely exported as raw materials. South Africa’s G20 presidency has backed a Critical Minerals Framework aimed at helping mineral-rich African countries retain more value through local processing and manufacturing.
The article highlights a broad set of minerals central to clean-energy supply chains, including cobalt, manganese, natural graphite, copper, nickel, lithium and iron ore, used in equipment such as solar panels, wind turbines and electric-vehicle batteries. It cites estimates that Africa holds major shares of global reserves for several minerals, while South Africa is described as having particularly large endowments of platinum group metals and chromium and manganese resources used in technology and electronics manufacturing.
Demand growth is expected to stay strong over the long term, with the piece citing a 2025 International Energy Agency outlook projecting rapid increases in demand for lithium, graphite, nickel, cobalt, rare earth elements and copper through 2040. Against that backdrop, the authors argue that exporting raw or semi-processed minerals while importing finished green technologies leaves African economies without potential jobs and industrial capacity.
The article says that expanding processing and value addition on the continent could create about 2.3 million jobs and lift GDP by roughly 12%, positioning critical minerals as a lever for industrialisation and employment. It points to high unemployment in South Africa as an illustration of the scale of the challenge, particularly among young people.
As solutions, the authors point to the G20 framework’s push for local beneficiation and for dispersing mining, transport, processing and sales across multiple countries to reduce dependence on single suppliers and strengthen supply-chain resilience. The framework is also described as advocating strong governance aligned with national laws, improved mapping of deposits, and skills development to build local capability across the value chain.
The piece argues that geoscientists are central to turning mineral endowments into economic value, from exploration and resource estimation to safer infrastructure planning, water management and environmental monitoring. It says Africa needs deeper expertise in areas such as geodata science, geometallurgy, predictive modelling and leadership, supported by targeted training, partnerships and incentives for industry knowledge transfer.
