Africa's Critical Minerals: Reshaping Global Supply Chains and Geopolitical Power

Africa's vast reserves of lithium, copper, cobalt, graphite, and rare earth elements are positioning the continent at the center of the global race for critical minerals. As governments and industries seek secure, diversified supply chains to support the energy transition and advanced technologies, African nations are gaining unprecedented strategic influence. Through export controls, industrial policies, infrastructure partnerships, and resource nationalism, countries across the continent are seeking to capture greater value from their mineral wealth while navigating growing competition between global powers.

Join S&P Global experts as they examine how Africa is transforming critical mineral markets, leveraging geopolitical competition, and shaping the future of global supply chains.

1. Africa's Rising Influence in Critical Mineral Supply Chains

How is Africa reshaping the global critical minerals landscape?

• Why Africa has become indispensable to the energy transition and technology supply chains
• The continent's growing role in supplying key minerals, including cobalt, lithium, graphite, copper, and iron ore
• Shifting investment patterns and the race to secure long-term mineral supply

Case Studies in Resource Nationalism and Value Capture

• Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC): Leveraging cobalt dominance through export controls, strategic partnerships, and increasing engagement with
  Western investors
• Zimbabwe: Using lithium export restrictions to promote domestic processing and downstream investment
• East Africa: The emergence of Tanzania, Mozambique, and Madagascar as critical hubs for graphite production and processing

2. Geopolitical Competition and Africa's Growing Bargaining Power

How are African nations navigating competition between global powers?

• Africa's emergence as a critical battleground in the contest for mineral security
• Comparing the approaches of China, the United States, Europe, and other strategic partners
• Which regions currently maintain the strongest economic relationships with Africa—and why?

Development Goals vs. Geopolitical Interests

• What African governments want from foreign investment: infrastructure, industrialization, jobs, and revenue
• How major powers are aligning their offers with African development priorities
• How governments are assessing the durability and reliability of long-term partnerships with China, the United States, and other investors

3. The Next Decade: Risks, Constraints, and Future Supply Chain Scenarios

Can Africa fully realize its critical minerals opportunity?

• Key obstacles to growth, including security risks, policy uncertainty, infrastructure limitations, power availability, and artisanal mining challenges
• The realities of project development timelines and bringing new supply online
• Can the continent move beyond extraction into processing, refining, and battery-material production?
• How resource nationalism, geopolitical competition, and investment trends could reshape global critical mineral supply over the next decade


Will Africa become merely a supplier of critical minerals—or a dominant force in defining the future of global industrial supply chains?

Speakers

Paul Hunt (Moderator)

Director, Product Development
S&P Global Market Intelligence

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Thea Fourie

Head of Regional Analysis, Middle East & Africa
S&P Global Market Intelligence

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Alice Yu

Associate Director, Metals & Mining
S&P Global Energy

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