Key industry events, such as the yearly Investing in African Mining Indaba, help industry roleplayers to assess what is required to develop Africa’s “undoubted” mineral wealth, says coal research requirements non-profit organisation Coaltech CEO Avhurengwi Nengovhela.

He adds that major mining conferences are also particularly important and relevant, as Africa contains most of the mineral resources that are in demand globally.

While Africa boasts vast critical minerals, including copper, cobalt, lithium, nickel and rare-earth elements (REEs), the continent has not sufficiently benefited from the exploitation and beneficiation thereof for myriad reasons.

Nonetheless, Nengovhela highlights that Africa’s mining industry has focused the bulk of its efforts on upstream activities, such as exploration and mining, while downstream activities, such as in-country mineral beneficiation and the manufacturing of products using African minerals, received less attention and investment.

“That’s really the difference between Africa and the likes of China, which has effectively monopolised their downstream activities.

“The importance of Coaltech, and the sector as a whole, is trying to see if we can exploit the full value of our mineral endowment and not just what we get from the mining aspects,” he explains.

From a Coaltech perspective, Nengovhela says there are critical minerals within coal resources, particularly REEs, and following extensive research on this resource, Africa could supply the world with REEs.

African Mining Challenges

One of the key impediments curtailing Africa’s mining sector growth is an inability for multiple jurisdictions in Africa to work cohesively, and the failure to do so results in the sector’s not fully capitalising on economies of scale, explains Nengovhela.

The mining sector should meaningfully consider how to create regional and collaborative spaces to fully leverage Africa’s mineral endowment.

Nengovhela highlights policy uncertainty as another impediment affecting sector growth in Africa, as global investors jump from one jurisdiction to the next, hoping to find the most favourable national policy terms before making substantial and multi-year investment decisions.

However, some mining jurisdictions in Africa are aiming to attract foreign investment by lowering their tax requirements. The net outcome of this however, is that the continent does not benefit from its mineral endowment, he adds.

Despite this, Coaltech stresses the need to continue attracting more investment for Africa’s exploration activities.

“It’s not a coincidence that a country, such as South Africa, has a lot of mineral resources when compared to a country such as the Central African Republic. This is not to say that the latter is not endowed, it is merely a function of how much investment has gone into exploring the different jurisdictions,” highlights Nengovhela.