Southern African states push to keep mineral wealth at home

Leaders from the mineral-rich region have met for a summit on industrialization and trade and discussed cooperation with Russia Southern African countries should process their critical minerals domestically instead of exporting raw materials that create wealth and manufacturing jobs elsewhere, the region’s top official has said.

Southern Africa is regarded as the continent’s richest and most diverse critical-minerals region.

Members of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) hold major deposits of cobalt, copper, lithium, graphite, manganese and platinum-group metals, placing the bloc at the center of global competition for resources used in clean energy, electronics and military technology.

At the 16-member bloc’s summit in Durban, South Africa, on Monday, Executive Secretary Elias Magosi pressed leaders to turn that mineral wealth into industries and jobs.

“We do not need permission from anyone to start this process.

Let’s start now,” he said.

Read more Africa has something China and the West need, but will it profit? South African President Cyril Ramaphosa made a similar appeal as his country assumed the SADC chairmanship.

Despite the region’s mineral wealth, he said, “we export the ore and import the battery,” leaving Southern Africa to buy back processed goods at prices set abroad.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo), a SADC member since 1998, is the world’s leading cobalt producer and second-largest copper supplier.

Zambia is another leading copper producer, while Zimbabwe, South Africa and Mozambique hold significant deposits of lithium, platinum-group metals and graphite, respectively.

READ MORE: DR Congo limits mineral exports as US pushes for greater access The US has openly sought to curb China’s dominance of critical-mineral supply chains, making Southern Africa a focus of the competition for copper, cobalt, lithium and graphite.

China already controls major copper and cobalt operations in the DR Congo and has invested heavily in Zimbabwe’s lithium industry.

Beijing is also funding a $1.4 billion refurbishment of the Tanzania-Zambia Railway, an export route linking Zambia’s mining belt to the Indian Ocean.

Washington and Brussels are backing the Lobito Corridor, a competing trade route linking mining areas in Zambia and the DR Congo to Angola’s Atlantic coast.